When Jacob Hogue joined the Montgomery County baseball team in the 2022 season, he was part of a large freshman class.

Now, he’s the only senior of a MCHS team that is looking to finish with its fourth straight winning season.

“It’s kind of weird because coming in my freshman year, I started varsity, so I was with all of the older guys,” Hogue said. “Now, none of them are here. I’m on my own. I’m the only one who’s got four years of varsity experience on the team.”

Hogue has been a valuable addition to the Wildcats since his arrival three years ago. When he was a sophomore, he helped MCHS win an Eastern Missouri Conference title. Last year, he hit .302 and earned a spot on the all-Class 3, District 7 team.

This year, he’s leading a team that has mostly juniors and freshmen. Two of those juniors – Edwin Garcia and Colby Ellis – earned all-Eastern Missouri Conference honors in 2024.

“I think we have a strong younger class,” Hogue said. “Our sophomore class also has one guy with Reed Pottebaum. Our freshman class is pretty strong. They need to grow into their bodies and develop as players and they’ll be just fine.”

On April 7, Hogue finally got to play his last first home game of his baseball career as the Wildcats took on the Warrenton Warriors in their home opener. Unfortunately, his team didn’t pull off the win as MCHS lost 7-6 after scoring all of its runs in the bottom of the first.

Hogue had mixed emotions about playing at home for the first time this season after going on the road the first six games.

“It was nice,” the senior said. “We worked a lot on our field during the off-season and before we played, but it kind of sucks that we couldn’t get the win at home.”

The Wildcats played the first of their eight home games this season in the contest against Warrenton. They won home contests over Bowling Green and Mark Twain on April 15 and 16, respectively. MCHS wraps up its regular season on May 15 with a home game against Centralia.

Hogue hopes to enjoy an injury-free baseball season this spring. Last fall, Hogue suffered a season-ending injury in the final week of the regular season against Centralia. He broke a bone in his right hand.

“It was a compound fracture and it almost came to the skin,” Hogue said. “So I ended up having to have surgery and a screw was permanently put in my hand.”

Despite the injury, Hogue turned in an outstanding season on the gridiron. He earned all-EMO honors on both sides of the ball and an all-district award after catching for 784 yards with seven touchdowns as a receiver, rushing for 268 yards with four touchdowns and finishing with 57 tackles with two interceptions on defense.

Hogue said in order to turn in another strong season on the diamond, he has to improve on his hitting. He was hitless in his first two games before getting his first hit against Duchesne on March 22. He  has seven hits and five RBIs after 11 games this season.

“My season didn’t start the way I wanted to start,” said Hogue, who plays second base. “I’m not hitting very good right now. I got to put myself together before I worry about the rest of the team.”

Last year, he was one of five MCHS players who hit .300 or better. He drove in 15 runs and scored 16 times. He had a three-hit performance in the Wildcats’ home opener against Linn.

The efforts helped the Wildcats finish 12-9, but were eliminated by Elsberry in a district semifinal game at home.

“We were in a groove for sure coming into districts,” Hogue said. “We were hitting the ball well, our defense was great and our pitching was pretty good. We just kind of took that Elsberry team as a nobody because we beat them by 10 runs earlier in the season.”

Hogue has been playing baseball since he was little. He took off a year off of the sport in eighth grade before returning in his freshman year at MCHS. He was one of 10 freshmen on the Wildcats’ squad in 2022.

“I came into my freshman year thinking I’ll probably be like everybody else, playing on JV,” said Hogue, who plans to attend Missouri S&T next year and major in architecture and civil engineering. “Then, I got the chance to play varsity. I just try to make the most out of it. I kind of held my own with the rest of the varsity guys and I think it’s helping with my experience all the way through.”