Eduardo Miranda
The Daily Independent
The Cerro Coso Coyotes baseball team are back in the playoffs for the second consecutive year after finishing the Inland Empire Athletic Conference with a 15-9 record for third place and a 23-16 overall record. The California Community College Championship Southern Regional brackets were released with Cerro Coso being ranked No. 20 and earning a best of three game series against the No. 5 Cypress College. All three games in the series will be played at Cypress College beginning on Friday at 2 p.m. and Saturday at 11 a.m. With a best of three, the Coyotes could play a doubleheader on Saturday if they force a winner take all game three. Head Coach Justus Scott spoke on his team earning a playoff berth and finishing in third place in the Inland Empire Athletic Conference.
"Simply put its great for multiple reasons. I know our guys knew they were in the hunt towards the end the last two weeks. You could kind of feel a difference of how they were practicing and how they were talking, there was an air of excitement. For them to play well and get in is an accomplishment for them. I'm very proud of them. I'm proud that they are happy and excited," he said. "And they are extremely excited for this weekend. Plus, back-to-back playoff years, brings a lot of things to the program. Guys who were freshmen last year it was a single play-in game last year and it went really, really fast. It did for me it felt like a three-inning game and that's playoff baseball its just different. The excitement is there and for those guys to have another shot at it, and a three-game series, is nice for them.
"This conference was better this year and you could see if from the RPI (rating percentage index) and we got four teams in this year. Desert who finished fourth got in and that is a good thing for our conference and all of the teams who are in it. It shows the baseball in our conference is getting better and finishing third is an accomplishment. It got us into the playoffs. As a coach you always look back and there are four or five one-run game that a play here or there, or a better pitch over there and realistically so we are sitting in second, very easily winning a couple of them. But that's sports there really is no failure in sports, there shouldn't be, but you always look back at the what if things. And then try to fix it the following year knowing you have already been in that situation. So, at the end of the day, you can have the year you really want, but it's a big thing."
The Coyotes are facing Cypress College in the first round of the playoff. The Chargers finished the year with a 12-9 record in the Orange Empire Conference for fourth place and an overall record of 26-13. The Chargers go into the playoff with a .289 percent batting average with 31 home runs, a .441 percent slugging percentage, and a .386 percent on base percentage.
"Great baseball team. Realistically in the state of California there are 88 teams that play baseball, junior college baseball. And realistically there are probably eight to 10 teams that truly have a chance at winning a state championship for multiple reasons, and Cypress is one of them," Scott said about his team's opponent. "They are a storied program, they are down there in the hot bed of high school baseball, great facilities, big school, and they are a very, very good baseball team. We are going to see great pitching and they are going to be able to swing the bat too. It's going to fun, it's going to be a challenge, we have to play our best baseball to give ourselves a chance to win a game."
The three-game series begins on Friday at 2 p.m., and Scott said in a three-game series the team that wins the first game has a higher chance of winning of the series. But besides trying to pull off the upset, Scott said he is going into the series this weekend hoping for his guys to play really good baseball and see where it all falls. Maybe they catch some breaks, some balls fall, they get good performances on the mound, and are in the game. He continued that if you can get to a game three then anything can happen as both team's pitching staff will come down to players who have not thrown a ton on innings or players who have thrown a ton of innings but not in crucial situations. Anything can happen in a game three, and if they can get to it by winning on Friday or winning the Saturday morning game, it will make game three a lot of fun.
Going into the week, the Coyotes will begin to prepare for the playoff series against Cypress College. Scott recently gave his players a few days off as his players are tired and unfortunately have a sickness going around. He said some of his pitchers are a bit sore from throwing so many innings and this was a good time to give them a chance to rest for a few days. But they returned to practicing and practiced has gone well. The Coyotes coach is currently keeping things short and quick as he said at this point of the season you are not going to teach them anything new, you are not going to fix anything that is broken, but you are going to mitigate anything that is broken a bit. Currently, the Coyotes are running through their defense, refreshing first and third defense, their pick plays, and swinging the bat. They will continue the short and sweet practice until Wednesday, they will then hit the road and travel to Cypress on Thursday, and practice on the Cypress diamond that same day. Scott did add the message he had for his players as they prepare for the playoffs.
"We are going to talk a little bit today; we haven't brushed the subject much. They know we are in, obviously they are excited, but today at practice we are going to talk a little bit about the expectations about it and also the mindset of it. Just some general what to expect not being in it, kind of reminding the guys from last year teams that this goes fast, but it's still baseball," the Coyotes coach said. "You have to throw strikes, you have to make plays behind the pitcher, and you have to be able to drive in runs when you have the opportunity, which this year in the middle part of the season we struggled with. It wasn't happening for us. Those are the three big things for me and just the main thing probably is our guys go out there and not be too excited. Again, its baseball, you just play baseball."
Yet Scott, his coaching staff, and his players are excited to reach the playoffs and be in a three-game series against a quality opponent with a chance to upset. He spoke on what he wants to see from his players during the practices leading up to the series opener on Friday.
"Just that they have the energy and excitement and it's fun for these guys. That is what this is about really and truly is you have to have fun playing sports," he said. "And they are having fun right now and they should be because this is different and this is new. This is not game 17 of the season and it's a grind. They earned something and now they get a chance to do something that basically only 23 other teams besides ourselves are doing. That is a nice thing and it builds, what many people don't talk about, it adds something to the freshmen who are coming back and the incoming guys. It's very, very important for our program and our school to do this."