STORY BY AIDEN EISEL, STAFF WRITER
PHOTO BY JONATHAN SINTORA, STAFF WRITER
The 21st-ranked baseball team at Cypress College has a big week ahead of them, as they will start their playoff series against LA Valley College starting on May 3 and ending the following day, May 4.
They will look to improve on their performance from last season, as they fell to Santa Ana College in the State Regionals which is the second round of the playoffs.
This season, the team finished with a record of 23-16-1 and 9-12 in conference play. They found more success at home this season, with a 17-6-1 record at home, compared to a 6-10 record on the road.
Addressing how the team will approach the postseason, Head Coach Anthony Hutting said, “With how tough our opponents have been down the stretch, we feel like we’ve been playing playoff games for the past month.”
He said that he thinks that’ll help them take advantage of playing a team on a 22-game winning streak, and that “Being in the OEC conference prepares you for who you’re going to play in the playoffs”.
He doesn’t want the players to have “mindset changes” and to treat the series as just an “ordinary series”. The players and coaching staff know that it will be a challenge to face a team of that caliber.
Hutting believes that the preparation they’ve put in and their recent string of games will help them feel up to the challenge against LA Valley.
The team put up 357 runs with a .328 batting average, a .420 on-base percentage, a .511 slugging percentage, and hit 52 home runs. The team finished 7th in the conference and will be the 21st seed, sneaking into the playoffs based on their “RPI”.
“The goal is to get yourself to the postseason with a chance to make a run and give yourself an opportunity,” said Hutting. As the team prepares to perform in the biggest stage of the season, they are doing exactly what Coach Hutting wants them to do. He knows that the series against Orange Coast College, which they swept, will give them some momentum heading into the playoffs.
Cypress traveled to LA Valley on Friday, May 3 for the first game of the series but fell short ending with a 7-8 loss. The second and third games against LA Valley will be on Saturday, May 4 at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. The series goes to the team that wins two out of three games. If Cypress wins the series, they will move on to the State Regionals next weekend.
