Pirates pressing the reset button
The 2016 Porterville College baseball team is starting with a clean slate.
The Pirates finished last season with a 5-30 overall record and a 2-22 mark in Central Valley Conference play, a campaign first-year head coach Ben Walkowiak said can be blamed on injuries and players playing out of position. Walkowiak replaced Jake Kiser last summer.
But the Pirates entered the 2016 season healthy and ready to go, perhaps none more than sophomore Pedro Aguirre, who missed most of last season after breaking his collarbone the first weekend. He had just 12 at-bats.
“It’s been a long year,” he said about returning from injury. “I’m excited to be back out here having fun with the guys.”
Last season the Pirates were a team that struggled to hit and got hit hard. Their .237 batting average and 5.10 team ERA were better than only West Hills Coalinga (.230/5.35) and Taft (.273/5.48) in the seven-team Central Valley Conference.
If Porterville wants to win more than five games this season, Walkowiak said the process is simple.
“We gotta play good baseball,” he said. “Winning is a byproduct of playing good baseball.”
Since the Pirates’ home field is one of the largest in the CVC, expect them to manufacture runs rather than trot the bases, Walkowiak said. That means making contact to get on base, working the pitch count and moving runners over with sacrifices and steals.
A new feature during games this season is a pro-style baseball with flatter seams; it was tested by the NCAA last year. The new ball is meant to help college players prepare for the pros by requiring more force to create movement on pitches.
Walkowiak expects the top end of the pitching staff to be stout this season because the first three starters — Gilbert Ortega, Edgar Reyes and Jordan Grader — are sophomores with experience.
The only lefties on the roster are freshmen Adam Bustos and Joe Kuster.
Ortega pitched 59 innings last season but was slammed with a 6.56 ERA. Reyes compiled a 5.46 ERA in 31.1 innings and Grader finished with a 3.88 ERA in 55.2 innings of work.
“With those three guys I feel we can compete with anyone on our schedule this year,” he said.
“This year we obviously have a lot of momentum going in,” Ortega said. “We obviously don’t want to win just five games; we want to win more.”
Gage Chacon, owner of a .368 batting average in 133 at-bats last season, is gone now. But catcher Ivan Galindo, who had a .305 batting average in 128 plate appearances last year, will return.
Players from local high schools dot the roster, including outfielder Brandon Lozano, infielder Jose Narvaiz and utility player Jose Prieto of Monache. Porterville High is represented by outfielder Nick Haskins, who took last year off from baseball. Infielder Dylan Peevy and catcher Kyler Blevins were part of last season’s PHS team
that saw most of its starters go on to play collegiate ball.
Prieto said he likes playing for the Pirates.
“I have a lot of good people I can call my brothers now to help me through everything,” he said. ‘I feel like it’s my home now.”
Walkowiak said his team needs to execute on defense to be successful.
“If we make the routine play we’ll be fine,” he said. “This conference is competitive. If you don’t play good baseball, you’re going to see it early.”
The Pirates started the season off strong, winning two out of three against Siskiyous last weekend. Reyes and Lucas Hugie were the win-
ning pitchers, with Hugie allowing no earned runs in seven innings.
Porterville opens conference play at home against Reedley on Feb. 23.