Season is approaching for the California Lutheran University men’s baseball team and the Kingsmen are eager to begin and have a productive season. The 2014 campaign resulted in an overall record of 36-10. During the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference the Kingsmen had a record of 22-6 resulting in a successful first place finish.

Head coach Marty Slimak expects the team to win.

“Well we’re going to win, how much I’m not sure yet.” He continued to add, “Over the years we have always had a winning season so I think we will continue to have a winning season.”

Slimak appeared confident about his hopes for the season with many returning players and new freshmen added to the team. His goals for the season are to win their conference and win the SCIAC tournament for a third consecutive season which will automatically give the team a chance to attend an NCAA regional.

The Kingsmen will look to their seniors for leadership during the season and Slimak said he believes senior pitcher Scott Peters and senior catcher Spencer DuBois will be influential to the team throughout the upcoming season. It is their final season and they are hoping to finish their collegiate baseball careers on high notes.

Peters said his goals for the season were to “get a SCIAC championship, one more ring.” A successful last season as a senior was a key goal for Peters and he was hoping to add another championship for the Cal Lutheran record books.

Spencer DuBois had the general goal to “just play well and help the team win.”

As a pitcher and a catcher, Peters and DuBois will play key roles throughout the season.

The focus is not only on these two seniors for this upcoming season. With 23 returning players the team has a lot of experience and a solid base to build upon from last season. Slimak said he hopes that senior infielder Collin Crowl, junior outfielders Justin Caña and Ramsey Abushahla and junior infielder Davey Casciola can continue to do well in order to help the team.

There is always room for improvement according to Slimak, and the Kingsmen will seek to build on their past success and get better with every practice. A key ideal for Slimak is to not stay stagnant; the team has been triumphant in recent seasons, but it is a new season and the Kingsmen will need to remain focused in order to be successful.

Both the players and coach feel that preseason is going well and had only positive comments about the training thus far.

“The training and the practices I think we’re getting, for the short amount of time we have, we are getting as much work in as we can and so far I believe it has been quality work,” Slimak said.

The team has pushed each other to succeed during this preseason and is working to develop and increase their skills during every practice. With the season quickly approaching, each practice is pivotal to the team.

“We all push each other, we all want each other to succeed, there are no ‘I’ guys, we are in it together and it comes from what the coaches instill in us and the philosophy that we have,” said sophomore outfielder Nicholas Cohan.

The Kingsmen’s first test will come against Whitworth University on Feb. 6 at 2 p.m. The team is hoping to begin with a positive result before their first conference game against Chapman on Feb. 20 at 2:30 p.m.

Ryan Angel
Published February 3, 2015