2026 Season Preview

The DC Grays are poised for the summer of 2026 season. The roster features players from some of the schools the Grays have historically recruited from – Wofford, Marist, Lafayette, Georgetown, Richmond and Catholic – while it adds players from some new schools, like UNC-Wilmington and Pensacola. In addition, the Grays have a number of
players from Southern University, as they return to getting high quality players from HBCUs.

Another critically-important change for 2026 is the Grays new home field – the beautiful fully renovated baseball field at Catholic University.  After two largely nomadic summers playing at Prince George's Community College (in 2024) and Woodbridge High School (in 2025), the Grays return to the District at last.  Talbot Field at Catholic boasts all new turf, lights, stadium seating, and press box, new cages and bullpens, etc.

"We are thrilled to be back in DC full-time, and to be playing in a first-class facility," said Steve Davidson, the new president of DC Grays Baseball.  "This will be the best facility in the Ripken League, and we look forward to calling it home for many years to come."

More important changes will be in the dugout, where the Grays will feature a new manager and two new coaches. Robinson Mateo, a local product and head coach of the baseball team at Jackson Reed High School in the District, takes over as manager. He's a 2012 graduate of Jackson Reed (then Wilson), and played four years of Div. 1 baseball at Southern University, where he excelled in the infield.

He will be joined by pitching coach Kelliann Jenkins, also from Jackson Reed, who holds the distinction of being the first female pitcher to get a win in NCAA history when she was a pitcher for St. Mary's College and Chatham University. Matt Kianka will be a third assistant. Matt played for the first Grays team in the Cal Ripken League in 2012, and is now a sought-after travel baseball coach. He played at University of South Carolina – Beaufort, where he was an all-conference outfielder.

Returning to the Grays dugout for his thirteenth year with the club is Jimmy Williams, a DC baseball institution. Jimmy has over fifteen years of professional baseball playing experience, and more than thirty years of coaching experience. From 1999 to 2002, he was Head Coach at Howard University, and is now an assistant with Prince George's Community College. He has been a mainstay on the DC Grays staff since 2013, coaching multiple MLB draft selections for the Grays.

The Grays pitching staff should be a strength of the team. "The pitching staff is young, but we believe there are many talented arms among them. We are looking forward to seeing these young guys compete." said Grays General Manager Chris Spera.

The staff includes Georgetown commits Nelson Hayes and Daniel Ockerman, Noah Bagby and Caden Brown from Southern, Mason Weaver from Wofford, Connor Lawrence from Marist, Southern Cal commit Bo White and Evan Wilson from Richmond. Brown, Wilson and Lawrence are two-way players, excelling on the mound and with the bat. Wilson (9 HR) and Lawrence (4 HR) showed power at the plate in addition to their abilities on the mound. The staff also features two way player Jackson Stallworth (Pensacola), Austen Keefer (Georgian Court), Kevin Chinnia (Towson), Coen Devillier (Catholic), Andrew Hoffman (South Carolina – Beaufort) Casey Edwards, Brayden Spurgeon and Andrew Sobiery (all three from Washington College), Chris Fortunato (Stevenson), Zander Leckszas, James Pedas and Michael Niszczak (all three from Dickinson) and Simon Corbin (Macalester).

The infield features returning DC Gray Joey Chitla (William & Mary), who was a stalwart on the 2025 playoff team. Bennie Bikar joins the team after a full season as Southern's starting SS. Other infielders include Ryan Stoddard (Lafayette), Aaron Rowell (Pensacola), Andrew Bogansky (Marist), Hartley Rahman (Catawba), Parker Shenman (Catholic) and Finn Boyle (Rhode Island College). Ronding out the infield group is Peyton Ford (California of Pa.), who in addition to having a really solid spring season (.286 average in 22 games) is the great grandson of Cumberland Posey, the founder and owner of the Homestead Grays after which the DC Grays are named.

The outfield group features UNC Wilmington commit Ben Drinkwine, Keegan McGraw (Chatham), Freeman Hunt (Dickinson) and Carter Sweeney Strawberry (Rutgers). Strawberry is the grandson of former MLB all-star Darryl Strawberry and is a highly touted prep player. This group will be supplemented by several of the two-way members of the pitching staff, who are also OFs.

The catching corps includes Xavier Bradley, who was Southern's starting catcher for much of the Spring season, as well as Travis Church from Marist, Drew Rybinski from Georgetown (expected to be the Hoya's starter next year) and Ethan Fox Hernandez from Vassar.

General Manager Spera stated "We expect the line up to be fast, aggressive and dynamic on the beautiful new synthetic turf at our new home field at Catholic University. The group is a nice combination of guys who have already proven to be productive at the college level as well as young guys hungry to make their mark both here in the Ripken League and when they return to their schools"