The Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association asked for it from the WIAA and, for the first time, baseball teams across the state will have the opportunities to play more than 20 games – 26 to be exact – this spring.

Teams across the state are taking advantage of this, scheduling more nonconference games prior to the start of their conference schedule.

“We work hard to develop a core of young pitchers and look forward to a 26-game schedule,” Wausau West coach Rob Wachholz said. “We have some promising young players that are going to go on to play baseball at the next level and the extra games help in determining those players.”

This is the first year the expansion of the season will be seen and schools the size of West, a Division 1 school with 1,696 students, are taking full advantage.

Even if weather is not conducive in Wisconsin during the first two weeks of the season, Wachholz and the Warriors make a trip south each year. This year West went to St. Louis because of the where spring break falls on the calendar, but last year the team went to Orlando for a week at the start of the season.

“It’s a chance for us to play games,” said Wachholz, who also said the team is likely to go back to Orlando next year.

Other teams like Madison Edgewood, the No. 1 ranked team in the WBCA Division 2 preseason poll, are adding games, but going all the way to the maximum number of games.

“We’re going to get 24 in this year and feel it out,” said Edgewood coach Richard Newton. “We didn’t overdue it this year because I wanted to see how it would add games to our sometimes already busy weeks.”

On the small-school end of the spectrum St. Mary’s Springs will not even reach the 20-game mark this year. As a school with 290 students, it simply comes down to numbers for the reigning WIAA Division 3 state qualifier last year.

“We never really get to 20,” Springs coach Mike St. Mary said. “We have 18 games scheduled and see how the season goes and we could schedule one or two more games.”

Hustisford-Dodgeland coach Rich Padron sees the benefit that is there with added games, but also has limited numbers and will stick closer to the 20-game schedule.

“The extra games are a plus for the kids,” Padron said. “The negative part of that comes in weeks when there are already three games in a week. It doesn’t give coaches the chance to coach the kids and work on things.”

The WIAA rules and regulations manual does state that conference tournaments do count into the 26 games, but the WIAA tournament does not.

Teams are allowed one trip out of state, like the one Wausau West takes ever year, but just one with games that do count against the 26 games.