Rex dealing with back-to-school departures in 2026 homestretch

It’s been a rollercoaster summer for the Prospect League’s Terre Haute Rex in summer collegiate baseball action.

The Rex finished the first half of the summer collegiate wood-bat league’s season with a 10-15 record, putting them in fourth place in the five-team Central Division of the Eastern Conference.

Then, the Terre Haute club started hot in the second half, winning their first eight games before things started to go sideways. The Rex are currently 11-7 in the second half, good for a one-game lead in the Central. They’re 21-22 overall, third-best in the Central.

Terre Haute’s recent slide, dropping seven of its last 10 games, has an off-field factor, beyond other on-field factors. Several players have been called back to their colleges by the collegiate coaches already ahead of their fall seasons.

“Our starters, we lost three of our main pitchers in one week,” Rex manager Tony Rosselli said. “We lost [Andrew] Guzman, we lost [Hayden] Slate, we lost [Grant] Faris. Three of those guys we lost and those guys are called back to school, they can’t do really anything about it.”

After a rough 20-4 loss at home to Champion City back on Wednesday, the Rex lost Carter Murphy, who was called back to school by the University of Southern Indiana. Then on Thursday, the Rex were run-ruled for the second consecutive night, this time 14-4 in eight innings on the road by the Normal CornBelters.

“We’re dropping like flies,” Rosselli said. “We’re going to have to compete with what they have.”

However, the Rex have continued to try to get new players in, but nothing is working out.

“We’re trying every day, we’ve contacted multiple arms, we’ve taken up almost every local guy,” Rosselli stated. “Schools right now are just shutting their guys down for the summer.”

It’s not just the Rex going through this though as Rosselli said other teams are dealing with the same thing.

“The guys that want it the most are the ones that are going to win,” Rosselli said.

Statistically, the Rex stand 11th out of 20 teams in the league in hitting with a cumulative .269 batting average, 18th in pitching with a 7.80 staff earned-run average, and 12th defensively with a .957 team fielding percentage.

In trying to figure out how to get more wins, Rosselli pointed out that the pitchers the Rex have will need to step up and the guys on the bench who are walking everybody are the ones who will need to step up.

“We can’t sit there and put position players in like that,” Rosselli said referring to putting Ben Kearns on the mound in the team’s 20-4 loss against Champion City on Wednesday.

Rosselli said to be frank, the team hasn’t had to do that since he took the field manager position.

“Kearns is a two-way, but obviously I need his bat more than his arm,” Rosselli mentioned.