The Schoolcraft Baseball program entered its 11th season in 2025–26, continuing the foundation built since 2015 under the direction of Head Coach Rob Fay. Reflecting on the 11-year journey, Fay said that the program’s identity is now well-established

 “Prospective recruits understand that we hold our players to high standards. You will achieve academic excellence in the classroom, you will spend time in the community volunteering your free time, and you will represent our program with strong character values on and off campus,” said Fay. 
After a 2024-25 season with an overall record of 21-31 (9-16 in the conference), the Ocelots returned in March 2026 seeking to elevate their performance, hit milestones and return to the postseason once again. Fay recalled that the previous year was difficult due to season-ending injuries to key contributors, which led the staff to prioritize adding depth at each position for the current season. 

Spring Training

The journey began under the warm and welcoming Florida sun. The Ocelots played in the RussMatt Invitational Tournament between March 8 and 13, facing universities and other colleges from different regions across the United States. This tournament allowed the coaching staff to test different playing styles. Coach Fay said the spring trip was a key chance to gain game reps and prepare for conference play, while also showing the team’s versatility.
The team faced Lake Region State College-ND (March 8), #2 Century College (March 9), Minnesota North College-Vermillion (March 10), Prairie State College (March 11), University of Connecticut at Avery Point (March 12) and Northland Community and Technical College (March 13).

The Ocelots went  4-6 demonstrating different levels of competitiveness, which is vital for the athletes’ preparation before the start of the regular season.

Sophomore infielder Braylon Schroeder reflects on the preseason games and believes they are the foundation for the team’s development throughout the season.

“The preseason games in Florida are extremely important for the season. They are not only a great experience for the team to really bond together and have fun, but it is also the team’s first time of the year really getting out onto the field, so it gives us a great chance to get comfortable playing together and playing outside on natural fields. We also benefit a ton from seeing all kinds of different live pitching,” said Schroeder.

As mentioned by Schroeder, team chemistry is a key part of all team sports. The baseball roster has the peculiarity of being quite robust, almost 40 players, with several players performing the same function on the field. Within this roster, we see the integration of sophomores with the newly arrived freshmen:

“The integration of the new freshman has been great. Everyone has accepted different roles and some have accepted those and really bought in and helped us out a lot.” said Schroeder.
Coach Fay added that the staff takes different approaches with freshmen and sophomores, balancing individual talent with overall team development.

“With freshmen we need to educate more on the proper way to play the game. We teach them how we do things here at Schoolcraft. While with the Sophomores we can focus a little more on the development needs that 4 year colleges or universities may want to see out of them to create opportunities for them to move on and play,” said Fay.

MCCAA – East Conference

Buying into the team’s idea and bringing the desire to win are ideals that come from a united team that has common and established goals. Playing in the MCCAA Eastern Conference, the Ocelots face teams from Jackson, Macomb, Henry Ford, Mott and St. Clair Community College. Of this quintet, Schroeder points to Jackson, Henry Ford and especially Macomb as the most challenging teams in the conference, in addition to highlighting the increased competitiveness this year.

“This year there are a lot of tough opponents in the conference. After playing last year I can definitely say that this year is more competitive. Teams like Jackson, Henry Ford and Macomb all have solid pitching. In my opinion the all-around toughest team would be Macomb. They are just all around  fundamentally sound. Their hitters execute their approach well and their pitchers fill up the zone,” said Schroeder.

Fay emphasized that every team in MCCAA Eastern conference is very good and he believes the key to reaching the top two spots comes down to pitching and winning the “freebie war,” which means limiting walks, hit pitches, and errors. Teams that do that the best, usually come out on the winning side. 

A more competitive conference is excellent for the development of a winning team, but it also makes the path to the postseason more difficult, which makes each victory uniquely valuable.

Regular Season 

March 19 kicked off the start of the regular season. Unfortunately, it was not favorable for the Ocelots’ campaign, which began with a 10-4 loss against Henry Ford, followed by losses to St. Clair (14-11) and Jackson (9-4).

In a doubleheader against MCCAA Western Conference opponent Kalamazoo Community College on March 24, the Ocelots dropped game  one (8-5), but managed to reverse the loss in the second game, winning 10-6. 

The team hit a rough patch to end March with two losses coming against Mott (5-4) on March 26 and Macomb (11-1) on March 28.

 Through eleven games in April the Ocelots are finding their stride with 6 wins and 5 losses. through April 14. 

The most impressive victory occurred on April 3 in a doubleheader at  St. Clair Community College, in which the Ocelots managed to score 17 runs  and completed the game in a 7-inning game pulling off the win, 17-2. The highlight was the sixth inning, in which the Ocelots rallied for 8 runs.

Currently, the Ocelots are in 5th place in the Eastern Conference with a record of 4-9.

Post Season Push

April will be crucial for the Ocelots, who know there is work   to be done to reverse the team’s trajectory in the standings and secure one of the top two positions in the Eastern Conference. A top two position will be the team for the Regionals, a feat not achieved since the 2020-2021 season, when the Ocelots began their participation in the NJCAA DII and recorded a conference record of 14-14. 

“The main focus for the group going into the rest of the season is just showing up and competing at the level we’re capable of, and doing that every day. We’ve struggled with consistency and as the year goes on we’ve shown we can compete with anyone, and we just need to keep improving and executing on a consistent basis.” said Schroeder.

The Ocelots return to the field on Saturday, April 18, to face Lansing Community College at home. All home games are held at The Corner Ballpark in Detroit.  

Amidst the competitive nature of sports, between hits, catches, and sprints, the baseball program, supported by the infrastructure provided by Schoolcraft and its Athletics Department, strives to ensure that its athletes achieve success on the field, but, above all, in their lives, as Coach Fay emphasized, this success is built on a strong foundation to be successful in life.