The first college baseball game scheduled in 2008 is the Cal State San Marcos Cougars at the Westmont Warriors, Wednesday, Jan. 23, at noon in Santa Barbara, CA. Both teams are NAIA members.
CSU San Marcos played the first game of the 2007 season, a 14-8 loss to San Diego Christian. It was the first-ever baseball game for both schools. CSU San Marcos finished their inaugural season with an 18-23 record, with wins over Division II UC San Diego and a good Point Loma Nazarene team.
Westmont was 7-38 last year, and they have been the doormat of the Golden State Athletic Conference the past few years. Their second-year coach, Scott Deck, played for Westmont as an undergraduate, and he is hoping for better things in the future. He recruited 18 new players for this season, including seven pitchers. One of them is RHP Max Gutierrez, a transfer from Ventura College who throws in the high 80’s/low 90’s. He was signed by Cal State-Northridge last year, but never played for them. Another is LHP Jon Weaver, who had an ERA of 1.80 at Scottsdale CC. Offensively, he got Jordan Bottenfield out of Valencia High School; he hit .402 last year.
CSU San Marcos is coached by Dennis Pugh, who had a long career at Mission Bay High School in San Diego. Their best hitter and pitcher last year, Scott Shapiro, graduated. They still have some returnees who can hit: OF/1B Terry Moritz (.275, 10 home runs), OF Tristan Gale (.375, 9 HR), and OF Austin Way (.349, 8 HR). The best pitching returnee is lefty Eric Julienne (2-1, 6.12 ERA).
Cal State San Marcos Site
Westmont College Site
2 comments
Actually, Wayland Baptist and Texas-Brownsville beat CSUSM and Westmont to it. Wayland Baptist swept a four game series over the weekend. There’s a story at http://baseball.victorysportsnetwork.com/article.php?articleID=5702
The CSUSM at Westmont game ended up being cancelled due to bad weather.
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