Prairie View baseball coach Auntwan Riggins doesn’t mean to sound ungrateful, but he would just as soon pass on the seemingly favorable spot the Panthers were picked to finish in in the recent SWAC Preseason Poll.
Riggins believes his team is better than the predicted second-place finish in the SWAC West Division that was bestowed on the Panthers earlier this month.
“To finish second, I’m finishing first,” Riggins said in a matter-of-fact tone. “It’s just one of those things where we’ve worked our butt off. We’ve competed well in the fall. We’ve got a bunch of new guys who are going to come in and help us and help us right away. I’m excited about it.”
Riggins will get his first glimpse into how good his team can be when the Panthers open the season at the second annual Cactus Jack HBCU Baseball Classic at Minute Maid Park beginning Friday through Sunday. Both Prairie View and Texas Southern will take part in the round-robin, three-day tournament.
He is excited about what starting out in the Cactus Jack can do for his team and the other SWAC teams that are involved.
“A lot of people don’t value HBCU baseball like they value other conferences,” said Riggins, who played for TSU from 1996-98. “It shows the world that we can compete at any level. The Cactus Jack venue, the MLB venue that we play in, it gives us the opportunity to show the world that we can compete with anybody.”
For Riggins this will also be the first opportunity to see how much his players retained from fall ball and to see how they may come together this spring.
“They are young so you are starting to try to teach them how to play as a team when society or Select Baseball I will say, it’s all about, me, me, me,” said Riggins, who is entering his seventh season as coach of the Panthers. “As soon as we can work together like we did this fall, they can be good right away.
“It’s all about playing together, playing for one. If we can do that then we can win ball games right away.”
The Panthers, who won the SWAC West in 2022, are coming off a disappointing 2023 season in which they finished fourth in the six-team division. But with the entire pitching staff returning, including Michael Dews, and a few key additional the arms, their rotation should be the strength of the team this season.
Along with Victor Mendoza, Matthew Krall, and Dews, Riggins has added right-handed pitchers Preston Allen and Tyson Carlton from the junior college ranks and has also brought in freshman Corey Battey, who was a Top 20 left-handed pitcher in Florida last year as a high school senior.
Riggins also added Lee Allen from Kansas City Community College, who should be an exciting player in the infield.
“This year is probably the first year that I have depth in areas that I normally don’t have. Pitching is number one. We are returning all of our starters from last year and we are bringing in guys who could start, as well. We will go with the flow of what we think will fit and then we will stick the rest of the guys in the bullpen.
“We are going with the staff. That’s probably going to be our strongest point of the team, the pitching staff. I’m excited about that.”
He is also excited about what this season can bring after not doing quite as well as hoped last season. The Panthers have back Alex Martinez, who had 35 RBI in 2023 along with Garrison Weiss, who led the team with 57 hits and 17 stolen bases.
“It’s been up and down,” Riggins said. “We’ve had two good years and then a not-so-good year. This year, we are going to balance that out and be more of a complete program that can pitch, hit, run, and play defense, so I’m very excited about this season.”
Predicted Order of Finish
SWAC East
1.Alabama State- 74 points (7)
2.Bethune-Cookman- 63 points (4)
3.Florida A&M- 61 points (3)
4.Jackson State- 46 points (1)
5.Alabama A&M- 35 points (1)
6.Mississippi Valley State- 15 points
SWAC West
1.Grambling State- 79 points (7)
2.Prairie View A&M- 67 points (3)
3.Southern- 56 points (2)
4.Texas Southern- 55 points (1)
5.Arkansas-Pine Bluff- 46 points
6.Alcorn State- 33 points (3)
*First place votes listed in parenthesis ( )
Preseason All-SWAC Baseball Teams and Individual Award Winners
Preseason All-SWAC Baseball First Team
C – Jamal George, Alabama State
1B – Jack Hay, Alabama State
2B – Randy Flores, Alabama State
3B – Cameron Bufford, Grambling State
SS – CJ Castillo, Texas Southern
DH – Sebastian Greico, Florida A&M
OF – Trevor Hatton, Grambling State
OF – Ty Jackson, Florida A&M
OF – Janmikell Bastardo, Florida A&M
SP – Daniel Gaviria, Bethune-Cookman
SP – Caleb Granger, Florida A&M
RP – Erick Gonzalez, Jackson State
Preseason All-SWAC Baseball Second Team
C – Jared Tribett, Alabama A&M
1B – Blake Martin, Alabama A&M
2B – Kyle Walker, Grambling State
3B – Cristian Lopez, Alabama State
SS – Kyler McIntosh, Alabama State
DH – Diego Lopez-Molina, Alcorn State
OF – Ali Lapread, Alabama State
OF – Garrison Weiss, Prairie View A&M
OF – Tiger Borom, Grambling State
SP – Sebastian Colon, Alabama State
SP – Michael Dews, Prairie View A&M
RP – Ethan Bates, Grambling State
Preseason Player of the Year
Cameron Bufford, Grambling State
Preseason Pitcher of the Year
Daniel Gaviria, Bethune-Cookman
