After finishing the regular season with an overall record of 28-16 and?a record of 18-10 in the Western State Conference, the Bakersfield College baseball team is headed to the postseason.
The Renegades will open the playoffs with a best-of-three series against Cerritos College May 9.
Head coach Tim Painton said that his team has a certain mentality heading into the playoffs.
“It’s a brand new season, and that’s how we’re going to approach this thing. It’s a great opportunity to go in and play well this next week and advance to the following weekend. That’s how we’re looking at it.”
Although the Renegades don’t know much about Cerritos, Painton is still in the process of gathering information about them.
“The little bit we do know, right now at this point, is they have exceptional pitching, and they play very good defense,” he said. “Hopefully, we can gather some more information and get more in depth with their personnel over the course of this week.”
Painton said that he has yet to select a starting pitcher for the first game against Cerritos.
“Everything will depend on match ups and which one of our guys matches up best with their team,” he said.
Painton feels that pitching is the biggest strength for his team going into the playoffs.
“I certainly feel like our starting pitching has solidified over the course of the season. Kyle Witten was just named Pitcher of the Year for our conference. Jared Hoyt has been outstanding over his last four or five starts. Jeremy Gonzales has kept us in games the entire year and give us a chance to win,” he said. “With those three guys you know you’re always going to be in ball games. I feel like that’s probably been our strength throughout the season.”
Painton doesn’t feel that his team is out to prove anything in the playoffs.
“We’ve proved that we belong in the top teams in Southern California, or we wouldn’t be playing this weekend. I think every time you step on the field you have something to prove because you’re competing. We’re just going to go in and do the best we can and hopefully advance to the following weekend.”
Painton said that his team is making adjustments for their series against Cerritos.
“The game of baseball is a game of adjustments. It’s just getting back and doing some of the things to get guys back solid with their feet on the ground going into this weekend.”
Painton doesn’t feel like the one-week layoff will hurt his team.
“We’ll do some stuff in practice to kind of keep them (the players) sharp with live at-bats and hitters throwing at pitchers. It’s actually a plus. You get a chance to take a step back a little bit. I think it will be a positive rather than a negative for us.”
Witten, Casey Brown, and Brandon Boren were unanimous all-star selections for the Western State Conference’s first team. Outfielder Tyler Garewal, infielder Jeff Burleson, designated hitter Dylan Nasiatka, and Hoyt were named to the WSC second team.
Honorable mentions for the WSC team were infielder Fabian Rivea, Gonzales and first baseman Matt Martin.