photo by: Sarah Buchanan/Special to the Journal-World

Free State junior Nathan Young winds up in the early innings of Friday’s game against Saint Thomas Aquinas on Friday, April 11, 2025.

Nathan Young planned on going the junior-college route to continue his baseball career. Coming from Free State, where winning is the expectation, Young wanted to go to a program he considered a winner.

After visiting Barton, Butler and Cloud County, Young landed on Barton and announced his commitment.

“It’d be hard to go from a program that does a lot of winning in high school to go to somewhere in college that doesn’t play as well,” Young said. “Barton had a good competitive atmosphere, and I thought that’d be a fun place to go to and develop.”

Barton went 42-13 in 2025, including a 26-6 record in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference.

In all of his three years at Free State, Young went to the state tournament. His first two years, the Firebirds placed third, while the team won it all this past season.

Young has learned a lot about winning in his time at Free State. The work ethic and focus required to succeed is ingrained into everyone who plays with the team. Equally important is building a family with teammates and having fun playing with each other. Next year, Young wants to bring what he learned to college.

“I want to be a guy who can impact his teammates, and I want to be a guy who everybody says was fun to have on a team,” Young said. “I think most of the guys at Free State would say that about me. You can really build a family when you play with teammates for a couple years.”

While Young has his college picked out, he still has another year left with the Firebirds. After finishing with the third-most innings pitched on the team, Young will be one of the team’s starters in 2026. His increased workload is an exciting challenge for his senior year, as the Firebirds attempt to go back-to-back as 6A state champions.

“I’m really excited for all that is coming up this season, especially after what we did last season,” Young said. “I think we can definitely have a chance to do it again. All of the guys that have been on varsity before are ready to teach any of the guys that are coming up what the program is like.”

Young started two games in 2025, once in the regular season and once in the state tournament. His experience in the state tournament in a pressure situation gave him a sense of what it’s like to compete with the highest stakes.

“The main part about that position is to make sure you just give your best effort,” Young said. “If you’re giving your best effort, there’s nothing else you can do. As long as you’re prepared to throw strikes and get out, you’re going to be all right.”

Young and 2025 starter Zane Shaw will be the top two pitchers with a strong bullpen behind them. As one of the senior leaders, Young is preparing to take on more of a leadership role to round out the pitching staff.

“It’s good to make sure that you always encourage your teammates when you can and make sure that you’re not the guy who’s not being a great teammate,” Young said.

For the next few months, Young is working on his strength to prepare for his senior season and the start of his college career. At the same time as he works on developing, Young is focused on enjoying his last year with Free State and winning another state championship.