College of Southern Nevada Athletics issued the following announcement on Jan. 5
The College of Southern Nevada Baseball team is one of the elite programs in the NJCAA and in the Scenic West Athletic Conference.
Every year, the Coyotes are challenging for national supremacy and they understand the challenges of being a persistent 'challenger' for championships. However, after a rough-and-tumble 2021 season that saw the Coyotes come back to earn the Region 18 championship, Southern Nevada coach Nick Garritano said his program is eager to take the field in preseason practices.
"After the long winter break, we will jump right back into things on January 10th," he said. "All of the guys were given a throwing program, workout program, etc., to continue elevating their own games. We expect extremely intense practices and inner-squad scrimmages when we resume back up. We will need to build our arms up to where they need to be for the opening weekend on January 28."
CSN traditionally has one of the best non-conference schedules in the country, mixed with regional contenders and other national powers. With the intensity of the schedule in mind, Garritano noted the advantage the Coyotes have in the competition they see at Morse Stadium due to their home tournaments.
"This year, things will be a little different than most years, tournament wise," he said. "We will have our opening weekend tourney with USU Eastern, Arizona Western and defending national runner-up Central Arizona. We feel playing the best competition possible will get us ready for the always tough SWAC league schedule in March."
Besides what they do on the field, CSN is prepared for the grind of the season thanks to a good amount of organic team-building efforts, according to Garritano.
"Our team has attended basketball games and ,volleyball games together and they seem to like to hang out off the field together," he said. "It seems that there are always guys hanging around the facility hitting, playing catch, or just simply visiting."
Academics are also an on-going focus for the Coyotes, with CSN looking to build on recent success in the classroom. With the 2022 season stretching from late January to hopefully June, Southern Nevada is 'all-in' on performing in the classroom.
"We are hoping to carry our academic momentum from the fall right into the spring," noted Garritano. "We finished the Fall with a cumulative team GPA of 3.34. 23 of our guys finished with a 3.0 or higher, with six of those guys being 4.0's. We are beyond proud of their accomplishments in the classroom. We will get right back to our study hall hours, stay on top of our players in the classroom and keep motivating them to be not just outstanding players but more importantly outstanding students."
For Southern Nevada, part of the focus for practices and the upcoming season is on contending for Scenic West, Region 18 and even NJCAA championships. In Garritano's mind, team defense will be critical for the Coyotes to reach the admittedly high expectations they have for themselves.
"We definitely need to do a much better job of forcing the defense to play catch," he said. "After doing this for a long time, I thought we were in the air a bit much and struck out way too many times in the fall. We feel that if our pitchers pound the zone and pitch within themselves, we make routine plays and play catch, we have a great chance to have another successful season. We always have a bullseye on our backs so we must come ready to play each day."
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up