Bakersfield College’s baseball team has had an up and down season so far this year due to injuries.
The Renegades’ record is 15-11 and 6-5 in the Western State Conference.
“We started the season with a rash of injuries for the first month of the season. We have kind of weathered that storm now. We are getting people back healthy and we feel like our best baseball is still ahead of us,” said Tim Painton, BC’s baseball coach.
The victories have come in streaks.
“We put together a four-game and a five-game winning streak and unfortunately, inspite of that, we also have had two three-game losing streaks, said Painton.
The team’s main strengths in the game are pitching and defense.
“I feel like at any level of play, whether it’s junior college baseball or professional baseball, pitching is the name of the game. I feel like our pitching has been pretty stable throughout the season.”
According to Painton, the team needs to work on its offense.
“Every team should improve everyday they get on the field so you’re consistently working to improve every passage of the game but offensively right now we have lacked the consistency we need to be an outstanding team,” he said.
During a home game on Feb. 27 the Renegades beat L.A. Pierce 1-0.
The only run came off a wild pitch thrown by L.A. Pierce in bottom of the eighth inning.
“It was a really good performance for our team,” said BC Athletic Director Jan Stuebbe, who was at the game.
One of BC’s last home games was against Cuesta on March 13.Cuesta won the game 19-7.
“It was one of those deals where we didn’t play well and they played exceptionally well. There are those days in baseball. When you play as much as we do there’s going to be days that somebody else plays exceptionally well and you don’t.”
BC played Santa Barbara on Tuesday and won 4-1.
“We got an outstanding pitching performance from Craig Green, who is one of the people who has been hurt. It was his first start of the year and he threw exceptionally well. I felt like we played good defense and did enough offensively to win a ball game,” said Painton.
BC’s next home game will be 1 p.m. Saturday against College of the Canyons.
“Previous games really don’t have a whole lot of indication of how the next one will go so we are just excited to get back on the field, and be playing at home and have the opportunity to compete,” said Painton.