The 2026 New Balance Future Stars Series JUCO Main Event Showdown will be held January 26-27 at Globe Life Field. Nine high-octane programs will compete to kick off the 2026 season in style.
Those nine are: Florida SouthWestern State College, San Jacinto College, Wharton County Junior College, Grayson College, Seminole State College, Amarillo College, Florence Darlington Tech, Lake Land College, and Wabash Valley College.
Let’s meet these programs, one by one.
JUCO SHOWDOWN TICKETS
FULL TOURNEY | DAY PASSES
Head Coach: Trey Porras
Home Ballpark: Corbett Park
Notable Alums: Glenn Sparkman, Ron Jones, Scott Boudreaux, Spencer Griffin
2025 Result: 27-28
2025 LEADERS
(MIN. 100 PA / 20 IP)
| STAT | LEADER | VALUE |
|---|---|---|
| AVG | Juan Cantua-Linnear | .322 |
| HR | Jose Vargas | 10 |
| RBI | David Bell | 30 |
| SB | Lane Sparks | 38 |
| OPS | Vargas | .975 |
| ERA | Ty Dagley | 2.24 |
| WHIP | Dagley | 1.12 |
| K | Harrison Wall | 60 |
The athletic staff listing at Wharton County Junior College is pretty simple.
They’ve got a head volleyball coach, a head rodeo coach, and a head baseball coach.
For Trey Porras, who is in his seventh season filling the latter role, the New Balance Baseball Future Stars Series JUCO Showdown presented by DraftLine is an opportunity to take the bull by the horns.
A native of Needville, Texas — not a long drive from Wharton — Porras recalls not having a lot of opportunities as a player coming out of high school, getting more looks for his prowess on the football field than the baseball diamond at the time. But, he went to Wharton as a baseball player and was a student-athlete there in 2009 and 2010 before playing for the University of New Mexico to wrap up his collegiate career.
Returning to the Pioneers as their head coach was something of a full-circle moment for him, and something he’s taken great pride in as he’s worked to try to take the program to the next step.
“It means a little bit more,” Porras told FSS Plus. “Not to say that it doesn’t mean as much to anybody else, but any time you’re coaching at your alma mater, you’re a little bit more passionate by design.”
He started his coaching career at Texas A&M Corpus Christi as a graduate assistant, spending three years there before returning to the University of New Mexico as a volunteer assistant coach for the fall of 2017 and spring of 2018, but when the opportunity arose for Porras, his wife and their young family to return to where it all started, he joined the Wharton staff first as an assistant under Keith Case, who retired after the 2019 season, leaving the program in good hands with Porras.
Since then, it’s been steady progress, including a 37-win season in 2022. The landscape of college baseball has changed over the last few years with the portal, and has made an already ultra-competitive world of JUCO ball even that much more so now. Going back to when he played at Wharton, it’s a completely different environment.
“I jokingly was saying to one of my assistant coaches that I don’t know where I would have fit in in today’s game,” he said. “You can get on a more philosophical level with the rise of select baseball, the rise of great programs like Future Stars Series, where they’ve specialized the athletes, and they come in with a better understanding of the game, I think.
“The talent level has continued to rise every year I’ve been here. It was already that way pre-COVID, but post-COVID, now you have the portal, and now you have NIL, which is really secular and stays predominantly at the Division 1 level, but it’s a trickle-down effect. With the roster squeeze, those guys who would have been a part of Division 1’s are now being pressed down; do they make the decision to go Division 2, Division 3 or NAIA? Most of the time, they want to have the most organic path, which is to go to junior college.
“It’s made our game better because of it, and it’s really something that every year, it’s continuing to improve and I’m excited to be a part of it.”
It’s something the Future Stars Series got to be a part of recently, as we got a look at Wharton during our Main Event with an abbreviated appearance on Saturday night, followed by a full game on Sunday.
The roster you’ll see in their return to Arlington might look somewhat different, but there will certainly be some names worth keeping an eye on when we get to the end of January in Texas for the biggest JUCO event of the year.
Harrison Wall: “He was our number one last year, logged a ton of innings for us, and came back even though he had Division 1 interest in the summer. He’s committed to Baylor. He’ll probably sit more 90-92…we’re opening in January for a spring sport, I will not throw an arm more than 50 pitches that weekend. There will be some different philosophies out there, some guys will run their number one out there like it’s a middle of April game, but I just want to try to prioritize the big picture…but Harrison will start on Opening night, which will be against Grayson on Sunday. He’ll definitely lead our team from a maturation standpoint and just a been-there, done-that. There will be some confidence adding his name in the lineup for sure.”
Trevor Ainsworth: “A transfer from McLennan Community College for us. Trevor has been, for us, up to 96 miles per hour. In the Texas Collegiate League, he was up to 98. He’s a BYU commit. It’s such a small sample size, I think he threw 11 innings in the fall against outside competition, which we log in Gamechanger, but he had a sub-one (ERA) during that time. I haven’t fully made up my mind, but I might end up piggybacking them on opening night.”
Braylon Mitchell: “He’s a returning All-Conference guy. Last fall was so interesting, he hit .450, and he was just a man among boys. Then you see him when you get to the spring, and the war of attrition with the game baseball; he dealt with injuries and hitting in the middle of the lineup and guys pitching specifically around him or game-planning for him, he had a more pedestrian spring than what his fall was. But I feel like he’s so mature because he had 200-plus plate appearances last year.
“If I had to make a lineup today, he’d be batting leadoff. His biggest attribute, he stole right around 40 bags last year; he will take the base, I’d imagine his walks and hit by pitches outweigh his number of strikeouts. It’s more of that classic, really solid college player that will do whatever it takes to win a ballgame.”
Dakota Howard: “Was an Oklahoma transfer who was in the lineup last year on a daily basis for us. He’s taken a step forward. Last year as a freshman, I felt like he was just going up there, and it was swing, swing; no matter what, I’m not going to walk my way off the island mentality. He was just up there hacking. This year, more patience.
“There was a game we played against Houston Christian University, they were a regional team last year, and their pitching coach does an incredible job of actually pitching and game-planning for us, and I think he had second and third with a base open in a close game, and he took the walk. Last year, it would have been ‘I’ve got to do it,’ so it was nice to see him relax and do a really good job of passing the torch.”
With those standouts and potentially some others who may get added with the mid-break transfers, Porras is confident he’s got a group that can compete when we get to Globe Life Field, plus many of his players have the added advantage of having already played under those bright lights before.
“In October, the Main Event, that was awesome,” he said. “That was really cool, to walk in there…I told the guys, ‘I’m 36, I’ve been on a major-league field for batting practice because I’m fortunate enough to have a couple buddies who made it all the way to The Show, but I’ve never been in the dugout for a game in a big-league park.’ To see those guys at that age be able to experience and to know that’s a life event, I don’t feel like that’s hyperbole at all. It’s a true-life event for them to partake in that, and to enjoy that environment and just help grow their love for the game very organically.
“So, to be a part of this in the spring…it was nice in the fall because, for us, I’m hoping it got some of the butterflies and some of the angst and the ‘wow, look at this place man’ out of the way, so that when we get there in the spring, it’ll still be special, but at the same time, not only are you playing at Globe Life in a big league park, but you’re playing some really solid competition. And that’s something I’ve always made a point of here, the head coach of Wharton; our overall record might not always reflect what it could be if we schedule softer teams, but I’m always going to go try and play the biggest and the best.
“There’s no bigger and better tournament than this one.”
About New Balance Future Stars Series
The New Balance Future Stars Series presented by Program 15 is a global platform for amateur baseball development and scouting, powered by a commitment to impact, integrity, and player-focused innovation. Its alumni can be found throughout professional baseball, and its events and partnerships have reshaped how talent is identified, nurtured, and celebrated.
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Since 2003, he has covered multiple World Series and has worked high-profile events ranging from the MLB All-Star Game to the World Baseball Classic. In addition to his role working for the Future Stars Series that he's held since 2017, Ashmore currently serves as the beat writer of the Double-A New York Yankees affiliate, the Somerset Patriots, as well as national hockey writer and New York Jets game day beat reporter for The Trentonian.
A regular contributor to Baseball America, Ashmore has worked eight Super Bowls, 12 Stanley Cup Finals, the 4 Nations Face-Off, the NBA Playoffs, College Football Playoff National Championship Game, Frozen Four, Daytona 500, major UFC events and much more as he approaches 3,300 games covered in his career.
An avid trading card enthusiast, he lives with his wife, Sarah, their son, future No. 1 overall draft pick in 2042, William, their beloved dog, Bailey, and occasionally well-behaved cat, Smokey.
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