2026 CENLA Baseball Season Previews
by Marshall Loeffler
ALEXANDRIA – The Bunkie Panthers, coming off of a winning season in 2025, are retooled and ready to lean on senior leadership, controlled pitching, and a familiar, program based approach as they open the 2026 high school baseball season, with the school having developed a strong youth pipeline and consistent program standard. The Avoyelles Parish Jamboree kicks things off and Head Coach Tyler Gremillion is feeling the optimism for his team’s ability to hang tough in a competitive district. Gremillion, a 2013 Bunkie graduate and former standout player, highlighted his program’s steady build and the excitement surrounding the core that leads his dugout this year.
The Panthers return significant experience, including three starters from last year’s pitching staff and six seniors overall, many of whom are stepping into bigger roles. “We graduated one of our main pitchers last year who pitched a lot of innings for us, but we are returning three good starters,” Gremillion said. “We’ve been focusing on mainly working with our guys on the mound with their control…with our batter, we’re just trying to get back into the fundamentals of it and not so much focused on trying to hit bombs… just base hits move runners, put people in scoring position, steal bases, things we know we can execute” he explained.
Key returners include:
- Senior Cain Milligan: three year leadoff hitter and reliable pitcher
- Senior Dominic Palermo: the dominant presence in the middle of the order
- Sophomore Austin Fitzgerald: has already pitched in big spots
- Parker Pilgreen: steps into larger pitching role
- Lucas Mose: healthy and poised for comeback
Defensively, versatility is a strength for Bunkie; “We’ve got guys that can play multiple positions… we’re going to rely on them to step up and play out of position sometimes… they’ve taken the challenge and they’ve done pretty well with it before,” Gremillion noted. Offense will rely on small-ball execution—base hits, advancing runners, speed, and forcing opponents into errors—rather than home-run power. The early focus is sorting out the batting order through the non-district season. The Panthers skipper has cultivated two middle school teams feeding the high school level, and his staff has encouraged the young athletes in his program to experiment with outfield and pitching to ease the transition and keep guys ready to fill in any spot. “A lot of them coming out of little league and travel ball… we have a few guys willing to play other positions… that way when they do get into high school, it’s not a culture shock,” Gremillion said.
The schedule kicks off with the Avoyelles Parish Jamboree—running for over 50 years—involving the parish’s three public schools (Bunkie, Marksville, and Avoyelles). “It’s always a good time to get the schools together… it’s a competitive set of games and it’s exciting for our boys,” he described, noting the friendly rivalries among community friends. Opening day is on the road against perennial contender Pine Prairie, followed by the Many Tournament in the first week for immediate quality competition. District play features matchups against Marksville, Jena, Vidalia, Buckeye and Caldwell, all of whom have had good baseball teams recently. Gremillion’s philosophy centers on unselfish standards and fundamentals; “We’re more worried about throwing strikes, filling up the zones, fundamentals, and guys willing to play as a team. That’s the brand of Bunkie baseball.”
