FROM CBD NEWS SOURCE
NORTHRIDGE, Calif. – Dennis Machado has been hired as an assistant coach for the baseball team, head coach Matt Curtis announced Wednesday. Machado will primarily serve as the team’s pitching coach beginning immediately.
‘We are excited to add Dennis to our coaching staff and feel he is a great fit for the program,” said Curtis. “We feel he is the right person to grow and develop our pitching staff.”
Machado joins the staff after spending the last three seasons at Cal State Bakersfield, where his responsibilities included coaching the pitchers and catchers, and recruiting.
In 2011, Machado’s staff was ranked 11th in the nation, including grabbing the top spot in complete games and finishing seventh in walks per nine innings.
“Dennis was integral in building the baseball program at Bakersfield from the ground up and making it into a competitive program in a short period of time,” Curtis added.
Before joining the Roadrunners, Machado was the pitching coach at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria from 2007-08. In 2008, his pitching staff included five players that earned accolades for their performances.
Machado has dedicated his summers to coaching as both an assistant and a manager in the Alaska Baseball League, spending time with both the Kenai Peninsula Oilers and the Glacier Pilots from 2007-11. During that span, Machado’s teams earned three berths in the National Baseball Congress World Series and two second-place finishes (2009, 2011).
In the summer of 2011, Machado was the skipper for the Oilers, leading his team to a 36-17 record in the Alaska Baseball League and earned Coach of the Year Honors. The Oilers captured the ABL Championship while leading the league in pitching and earned a spot in the NBC World Series before falling in the national championship game.
Machado began his coaching career as a pitching coach for the Kenai American Legion in Alaska from 1994-97. From there, he moved into an associate head coach role at East Anchorage High School from 2001-05. During those four years, Machado’s teams earned a pair of state championships.
Machado was drafted as a pitcher by the Montreal Expos out of high school, but elected to go to college, pitching for Butler County Community College (KS) and Oral Roberts University. He also played four years for the Peninsula Oilers and was a member of the 1994 National Baseball Congress World Series Championship team.
Machado earned his bachelor’s degree in health and human development from Montana State-Bozeman in 2000. Dennis and his wife, Michelle, have a son, Brayden, and are expecting a daughter in the coming months. They currently reside in Bakersfield.
