Watching baseball has long been the passtime for many Americans, with a plethora of teams ranging from the rookie league at the bottom of the minor leagues all the way up to the major leagues.
Spartanburg will soon welcome a professional team of their own, the Hub City Spartanburgers, in the new downtown baseball field, Fifth Third Park; the first game will take place on April 15.
The first game will not belong to the Spartanburgers, however. That honor has been bestowed on two local Division 1 college teams: Wofford and USC Upstate.
The April 15 game will come a month and a half into the terriers baseball season following a well played 2024 season, in which they won the Southern Conference championship and had their first NCAA tournament appearance.
The baseball team is led by coach JJ Edwards, who is in his second year as head coach, and his 14th year at wofford.
“I’m excited we get to open up the stadium, I know the city is super excited for it, the ‘burgers are super excited for it, and we’re just honored to bring baseball back downtown in a professional setting,” Edwards said.
With a successful record in the past few seasons, the team hopes to keep playing at that same level, and have started off the current season strong.
A few things have changed for the team from last year, however. This year’s team is a much different line up than last year, with many guys getting consistent playing time for the first time in their college career.
Edwards and other coaching staff are making sure that because of these newer experiences for the team, every situation they can turn into a learning one sticks with players.
“I think our identity is pretty proven at this point, and can be successful. Now you just have different names doing the bunting and the stealing, but I know we have the talent and we’re well coached with our coaching staff to perform that stuff,” Edwards said.
One of the many talents that are on this year’s roster is Ryan Wynn ‘27, who has consistently started at shortstop and hit early in the lineup this season after having spent most of his freshman year watching his teammates.
“Last year I got to watch a lot and I got to learn as much baseball as I could, and I feel like it helped me grow a lot as a player and helped me fit into the system more and learn how we play baseball, which is different than most schools,” Wynn said.
What makes Wofford’s baseball program different is their focus on the basics. They do more bunting and stealing than most baseball programs at this level, utilizing the hit and run when they can, putting the ball in play and playing clean defense.
And Wynn’s dedication to working on his game has paid off, becoming the third player on the team to hit for the cycle, hitting a single, double, triple and home run in the same game against Ohio University.
Hitting for the cycle is not a common occurrence in baseball, with the last cycle at Wofford being done in the 2013 season.
“I’m just glad I got the opportunity to do it and we got the win while it happened, but it was an extremely exciting moment; I was just proud I got to be in the club,” Wynn said.
And it’s the club that makes this program what it is. The team is really close, like a family according to Wynn, and they spend lots of time together, but they wouldn’t have it any other way.
