Coming off a strong 2007 campaign that saw the Cougars finish in second place in the Western State Conference, South and earn a bid into the Southern California Playoffs after a two-year absence, the College of the Canyons baseball team will take the field this spring for its 37th season in an attempt to return back to the playoffs and earn the coveted title of WSC Champions.
Seven-year head coach Chris Cota and his 37-man clubhouse will rely heavily on his sophomores to help lead this team to its potential. The Cougars return 15 players this season, which includes an All-Southern California honoree and five All-WSC players.
“The team goals this year is to get to the final four and win a state championship, but other than that it is to get this team to play to its potential,” Cota said. “The squad is a more mature team. We are riding with our sophomores this year. We didn’t have that one dominant player last season, we had five freshman that were first team all-conference that were really good players for us. There was no one guy that we said if we lost this season, we were in trouble.”
Leading the lineup for Canyons will be All-SoCal and first team all-conference winner Kyle Harris (.410 batting average, 5 homeruns, 50 runs batted in 2007). The sophomore infielder from Quartz Hill High School will help lead the attack after a season when he led COC with a .410 batting average and had a team-high 50 RBI.
“Kyle played third and first base for us last season and he is just a pure hitter,” Cota said.
In the middle of the lineup, Cota sees returners and all-conference picks sophomore outfielder Tyreace House (.402 avg., 4 HR, 25 RBI, 9 SB) and sophomore outfielder John Hay (.338 avg., 10 HR, 42 RBI, 2 SB), who Cota believes is his most valuable returner.
“Tyreace hit over .400 for us last season and was an all-conference pick,” Cota said “We expect him to follow-up on last year and continue to play well. John will be our right fielder and had 10 home runs last season. We expect big numbers from him this year. Although John did not have the average numbers, he is the guy who hit the homeruns and drove in a lot of runs for us last year.”
Sophomore transfer Brian Hernandez (.383 avg., 8 HR, 56 RBI, 6 SB) will be added to the lineup. He spent one season at Cal State Los Angeles as a third baseman and will be a major addition to this year’s clubhouse.
Up the middle, expect to see sophomore catcher Luis Perez (.311 avg., 2 HR, 18 RBI,1 SB). The first team All-WSC pick in 2006 should follow up on a very impressive freshman season and help lead the team on the field.
On the mound, COC will look to the experience of 6-foot-3-inch, 210-pound sophomore Mike McCravey (6-2 record, 4.93 earned run average in 2006). The left-handed hurler was injured last season and did not play but was a second team all-conference pitcher in 2006.
“Mike had a really good year as a freshman two years ago and was drafted last year,” Cota said. “I expect him to be pretty good for us this year.”
Also looking to make some big contributions is 6-foot-2-inch, 180-pound sophomore China McCarney (1-1, 4.39). The right-handed pitcher did not have huge numbers from last season, but is one of the top returning pitchers. Sophomore left hander Kody Kurowski (3-4, 4.05) enters 2008 with the most experience and the best ERA of the returning pitchers. Last season he recorded 30 strikeouts and walked 16 batters in 40 innings pitched.
“China was a pitcher that was injured early last season and came back and pitched well for us late,” Cota said. “If he stays healthy, he will be a draft pick in June. He only pitched 26 innings last season, but he will do well. Kody was third on our team in ERA as a freshman and was 3-4 and threw a lot of strikes. He’s a big 6-foot-4-inches and had a pretty good freshman year. His record didn’t really indicate it.”
Added to this year’s bullpen will be freshman Kaleb Deville, who redshirted last season at Master’s College, and freshman Aaron Misack from Valencia High School, who both have chances to get some innings this season.
As always, COC will play a tough non-conference schedule including early match-ups with 2007 playoff teams El Camino and East L.A. Cota hopes that this season he can break his team of the slow start that his teams have fallen into.
“We always have a tough non conference schedule, and year after year we do that to prepare us for our conference games,” Cota said. “We have been notorious for the past couple of years to have a slow start and finishing off strong. I hope that things will be different and we can start strong.”
This season, the Western State Conference, South adds a new team – West L.A. The Oilers brought back its baseball program this season, expanding the conference to eight teams.
“The conference schedule will be a grind this year,” Cota said. “Last season we had double byes (two consecutive bye games). Now we’ve added West L.A. to our conference and plugged them into our double byes. So we will go 9.5 weeks of three games a week without any byes, which is a long grinding schedule, but everyone in the conference is in the same boat.” |