Baseball team prepares for optimistic season

Michael Jasper

Head coach Tony Cirelli and his Mesa Thunderbird baseball team are excited that the baseball season is finally here, as they look to make it back to the NJCAA World Series for the fourth time in five years.If being excited about the upcoming season translated into the win-loss column, the Thunderbirds would be undefeated and in the championship game tomorrow.

How could they not be excited with returning All-Conference pitcher Connor Lewis, an experienced field of sophomores, and many talented freshmen?

“The freshmen kids are really excited this year, especially the pitchers,” said Cirelli.

“They are as good of young kids as I’ve had for awhile.”

It was a very strong recruiting year for Mesa, and that is a testament to how Cirelli and his staff handle recruits explained MCC athletic director John Mulhern.

“It is a program that is fair and recruits disciplined young men who are also student athletes,” said Mulhern.

“The baseball program feeds and proves itself through dedication, it sells itself.”

“It is widely known that if you come to Mesa, you will be well coached and well educated.”

Improving the defense will be one of the top priorities for the team this year, and having experienced and talented sophomores like third baseman Kevin Wells will help.

Wells suffered a serious ACL injury that kept him out last season after a stellar freshman year, but has now recovered.

Pitching is expected to be a strong point this year even though eight of the eleven pitchers on the roster are freshman.

“With pitching, there are a lot of young guys that we are excited about,” said Cirelli.

“And Connor Lewis is back with the most experience out of our pitchers. He was second in the league in ERA.”

If there is one attribute that will set this team apart from others in the league this year, it will be speed as the Thunderbirds aim to be as aggressive on the bases as they do year in and year out.

“Our speed will be a factor, we are a fast team,” said Coach Cirelli,

“(Dominic) Gamboa and (Nick) Orr are our speed guys, they are both so quick and are good fielders.”

It’s hard not to get excited about this young and dynamic team.

If there is a problem it would be how to get all these great players playing time.

After all, you can only fit nine players on the field at a time.

“We’ve got a really good class that came in, and we’ve got experience in the field,” said Cirelli.

“It’s nice to have a deep bench like we have. We’ll have to juggle guys around a lot in order to get them all at bats.”

If the only problem in Tony Cirelli’s 14th year as head coach is figuring out how to play every talented baseball player in his lineup, then the Mesa Thunderbirds are well on there way to another World Series.

The Thunderbirds next home game takes place on Feb. 8 at 3 p.m. against Weber State.

  • Mesa Legend Staff

    These are archived stories from Mesa Legend editions before Fall 2018. See article for corresponding author.

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