Eagles open 2020 seasons this week
Although the California community college basketball regular season still has a month to go, with playoffs following and the first day of spring is still a month away, nonetheless, the California community college baseball and softball seasons begins this week.
The Mendocino Eagles baseball team, a member of the Bay Valley Conference, is scheduled to play it first game of its 2020 season on Friday, Jan. 24, at home, 1 p.m., a non- conference game vs. College of the Redwoods of the Golden Valley Conference.
The next day, Saturday the 25th, the Eagles are scheduled to host a doubleheader with Redwoods, the first game scheduled for 10 a.m. and second game at 1:30 p.m.
Also on Saturday, the Mendocino College Eagles women’s softball team, also member of the Bay Valley Conference, will host its first two games of the season. The Lady Eagles will play a non-conference doubleheader with College of the Siskiyous, a Golden Valley Conference member.
Game 1 of the doubleheader is scheduled to start at noon, with Game 2 scheduled for a 2 p.m. first pitch.
Both Mendocino diamond squads are scheduled to play more games the final week of this month.
The baseball team is scheduled to host Cosumnes River College of the Big 8 Conference on Tuesday, Jan. 28, with the game starting a 2 p.m. The two teams will play a rematch on January 30 at Cosumnes.
On Wednesday, Jan. 29, the Eagles softball team will host Shasta College of the Golden Valley Conference in a doubleheader with start times for the two games again at noon and 2 p.m.
Making for a full day of intercollegiate athletic events on the Mendocino campus that Wednesday, the Eagles men’s and women’s basketball teams will also play home games that same day; the men playing Alameda at 5:30 p.m. and women playing Laney College at 7:30 p.m.
At this time of the year in this region, the word “scheduled” in reference to outdoor sports should probably be bolded, with the added parenthetical (subject to weather conditions).
However, as of this Sunday, January 19, the extended weather forecast for the Ukiah area calls for no steady periods of rain, with only a 20 percent chance of showers on Friday the 24th, 50 percent on Saturday, and no higher than a 40 percent chance of chance of showers the remainder of the month.
So it appears that the odds are in favor of getting all or most of the Eagles’ scheduled baseball and softball games played in the next couple weeks. That would be a big plus for the teams, since rainouts are often difficult to reschedule.
Each Eagles ball team has a small core of returning sophomores, some of whom were starters from last season’s teams. Each team’s roster is filled with a promising group of freshmen players.
The Eagles softball team will be led by second-year head coach Doug Wingler, along with a quartet of assistant coaches that include Melissa Atherton, Katie Smallcomb (a former Eagles player), Jessie Farmiloe and Arrian Bowers.
The Eagles baseball team will be led by first-year head coach Bret Ringer and assistant coaches Connor Franz (a former Eagles player) and Jeff Trouette (a former Eagles assistant coach).
This season’s Eagles softball roster includes sophomore right-handed pitchers Erin Hale (Geyserville HS) and Jamie Johnstone ( Willits HS) and shortstop Riley Goff (Kelseyville HS), all of three of where starters, with Hale and Johnstone seeing action in the field or DHing when not pitching.
New to the team this year are 9 freshmen including: catcher Mikelynn Rowe (Lower Lake HS) outfielders Sydney Lawler (Clear Lake HS), Sara Ogden (Clear Lake HS), Kennedy Lynch (Ukiah HS), infielders Kerrigan Nevill ( Ukiah HS), Courtney Peterson ( Piner HS), third baseman and catcher Katherine McCoy ( Ukiah HS), infielder and pitcher Ashley Bond (Rancho Cotate HS), and outfielder and pitcher Erika Olson (El Molino HS).
The Eagles baseball team roster includes 21 players, 8 of whom are sophomores. That group includes 4 players who saw significant playing time last season.
They are right-handed pitchers Logan Barrick (Kelseyville HS) and Gary Grosjean, Jr. (Truckee HS), second baseman James Wirt (Cloverdale HS) and third baseman Kyle Ellis (Kelseyville HS).
Barrick became part of the Eagles’ starting rotation in 2019. He also played some games at first base and will do so again this season.
Right-hander Gary Grosjean, Jr. was a reliever who earned the role of the team’s closer by midseason. This season Grosjean will get an opportunity to be a starter for the Eagles.
Wirt earned the job of staring second baseman for the Eagles last season. Ellis saw action in the infield at both third and second.
Other returning sophomores are infielder Will Iannacone ( Murdock HS, Winchendon, MA, catcher Preston Mello (Ukiah HS), outfielder Ethan Balogh (Central Memorial HS, Calgary). Sophomore Josue Jaquez ( Kelseyville HS) joins the Eagles this season as a first baseman.
Thirteen freshmen players fill out the team’s roster. That group of players includes Miguel Martinez, OF, ( Long Beach Wilson HS, Long Beach, CA), Jacob Monday, OF/ RHP, ( Piner HS), Adrian Villalobos, SS/ RHP, (Kelseyville HS), Alex Tamayo, UTL, (Piner HS), Aidan Rowan, OF, ( McQueen HS, Reno), Rylan Aikens, UTL, ( Dayspring Christian HS, Greeley CO), Josh Marcione, 1B/ RHP, (Placer HS, Auburn) Austin Alvarez, UTL, (Analy HS), Christopher Doak, RHP, (Willits HS), Kameron Fotouhi, RHP/3B, ( Piner HS), Derek Laferriere, C, (Truckee HS), Alex Vargas, RHP, (Placer HS), Cool, CA, and Will Scola, C, (San Rafael HS).
Both head coaches shared some comments on their teams.
Coach Wingler noted that, unlike last year’s team, this year’s team has had the benefit of a full Fall Ball session. “We had a great fall. From our first day to our last day (of Fall Ball), especially competing, we improved a lot. It gives us a way-better starting point