Jay Daubenberger
Liberal, Kansas – After showing off his skills on the mound, Saints’ pitcher Elias Herrera has officially signed his national letter of intent to continue his academic and baseball career at the four-year level with Northwestern Oklahoma State University where he will join the Rangers for the 2025 season.
Herrera started in 3 of his 15 games on the mound for Seward County in 2023, recording 4 wins on his freshman season with a 4.17 ERA in a total of 41.0 innings. He also struck out 27 batters which was good for a 5.93 strikeout per nine mark, with his best performance of the season being when he struck out 4 batters in 2.0 IP in a 30-5 win over Garden City to end the month of March.
So far in the 2024 season Herrera has stepped to the mound once for the Saints in game one of a four game sweep against Redlands where the sophomore pitcher was on the mound for 3.1 innings while tying his career high in strikeouts of four against the Cougars in a 6-3 win to open the season.
So far this season the Rangers of NWOSU have recorded a 2-1 overall record after winning their first two games of a three-game series against Metropolitan State of Denver. Last year the Rangers went 22-27 in the 2023 season while amassing a 12-21 record in conference action.
Herrera is one of three Saints’ pitchers to sign early to the next level as he joins Brian Luna Alvarez (Texas Tech) and Trent Gerber (Central Oklahoma) who will move on to the four-year level in 2025.