April 18, 2017

The San Diego City College Baseball Team has faced challenges this 2018 season, ranging from competition to team dynamics and player injuries.

Despite the obstacles the team continues to persevere. City College’s Coach Chris Brown shared the complexities the team has faced and the goals they have for the remainder of the season.

“We started off the regular season with very tough non-conference schedule that included four out of the six games we played were top five community college ranked teams in Southern California,” he said.

Coach Brown said that at this point in the season, the team was playing really good baseball. They defeated teams such as Cypress and Long Beach Community Colleges, victories which earned them a 7-2 record. However, the team lost key players mid-season.

“We lost our sophomore third baseman Blake Newman due to injury, lost right fielder Ethan Morris due to injury, second baseman Nolan Burr to concussion,” said Coach Brown. “We’ve been injury-plagued for quite a while. The boys have done a good job in stepping up and filling in those shoes for those players that aren’t here.”

The loss of these players has changed the dynamics of the team. Not being able to rely on returners to develop new players has left the team in a period of regrowth. Coach Brown described the team as a fairly young club of freshman and sophomore players that must find their style of play to improve as athletes and students.

“Take one player out and changes the completion of chemistry of the ball club. The boys try to find their own identity in a positive way, it has been a little inconsistent that might be a demonstration of our youth,” he said.

However, there have been players that have stepped up and taken on leadership position on the field. Right handed pitcher Jake Lipetzky, outfielder Calvin Knowlton, and center field Matt Bagdasar have become examples of team players to the freshman on the team.

Head Coach Chris Brown said, “Lipetzki has been ace pitcher throughout the season. Knowlton supplies a lot of leadership as well as Matt Bagdasar. Matty keeps all the guys lose, he’s a great guy to have around.”

Another challenge is getting fans to support the team. Locally, City College is the only school that has their field off-campus.  “We would definitely love more fan support from the community college, but it’s tough we play at 2 o’clock during the week and we are out away from the field,” he said.

Coach Chris Brown said the team is very appreciative of San Diego City College administrator for the time and funding they have invested on the baseball program. “This improvement just took place last year. Brand new facility, batting cages, bullpens areas, and the actual playing field all brand new.”  

“This is our classroom, we’re educating our players not only on the game, but we take pride on working with them on the intricacies of life, baseball is like the game of life,” he said. “There’s a lot of adversity thats is dealt out on the field…we work our players on trusting one another on teamship, commitment, on responsibility, work ethic.”

The Knights currently hold a 17-16 record and have five games games remaining in the season, including three home games.