CSN baseball team streaks into national prominence

Before running into some stingy pitching at Utah State Eastern last weekend, the College of Southern Nevada baseball team had won 18 games in a row to climb to No. 2 in the national polls.

Perspective check: Only nine major league teams have put together winning streaks of more than 18 games, and three were in the 1880s by clubs called White Stockings, Maroons and Grays. CSN coach Nick Garritano said not all of the 18 wins came against quality opponents. But let the record show the 1884 Philadelphia Keystones weren’t all that hot either.

“There were some magical times in there, some times where we had to fight back when we were down,” Garritano said before the 24-6 Coyotes took the practice field on a windy and overcast Wednesday. “It was a heck of a run, ran us up to No. 2 in the polls. It’s nice for the recognition. The kids deserve it, they’ve done a good job.”

The Coyotes will take a one-game winning streak into a four-game weekend set against Salt Lake Community College at Morse Stadium in Henderson. Starting another long streak of success would be great, Garritano said. But the objective is to win the series, to take three of four.

Winning streaks often are predicated on a lucky bounce or other whimsy and caprice. Winning series shows consistency, and consistency is the mark of a good ballclub.

Coyotes make their pitch

“It’s like we told them when we did lose,” said Garritano, who pocketed career coaching win No. 600 during the streak. “It’s not good that it’s over but at the same time it’s OK; we don’t have to worry about how can we keep this thing going. Eighteen games in a row is a lot. It’s really tough to do.”

It was just last season that the Cleveland Indians put together a 22-game winning streak, the second-longest in baseball history. It should be noted the Tribe had a slightly better pitching staff than CSN. But not if all things are relative, and not if one goes by statistics.

The Coyotes’ cumulative earned-run average is 2.62, which is minuscule given the 2017 Indians led the American League with a 3.30. Apples and oranges? Perhaps. More like aspirin tablets, which is what the baseball must look like to CSN’s opponents.

Eight of the 15 Coyotes pitchers have ERAs under 3.00. If CSN continues to pitch like that as the weather warms up, a second consecutive berth in the Junior College World Series may be in the offing.

“We knew the talent we had coming in, especially in pitching, and depth is what really has kept it going,” said Matt Gilbertson, 2-0 with two saves and a 0.75 ERA in 24 innings in which he has allowed 13 hits while striking out 29 and walking three.

Five of the eight CSN pitchers with sub 3.00 ERAs are local products. All can throw strikes.

Broadening the rep

Joey O’Brien, who finally got nicked for a run on the recent road trip and saw his ERA balloon to 0.61, is a Japanese import who also has hit a team-leading seven home runs with a slash line of .352/.504/.659 as CSN’s everyday left fielder. But Gilbertson (Green Valley High), Buddy Pindel (0.83 ERA, Silverado), Alex Tisminezky (1.50, Bishop Gorman), JD Brooks (2.19, Palo Verde) and Nick Rupp (2.56, Spring Valley), like the majority of the Coyotes, are local products.

“Vegas baseball has been very huge starting at an early age with Little League and club ball,” Tisminezky said. “A lot of people only think California and Texas and Florida — those are very big states and have very good baseball. But I think we’re finally starting to get a little more respect in that sense. UNLV is nationally ranked right now, they’re 19-3, and we just went on an 18-game win streak.

“I think it shows we have a lot of talent right here, and that will broaden our (reputation) and we’ll be able to recruit a lot of people from out of state, too.”

As is the case most times a visitor drops by the CSN clubhouse, the Coyotes’ assistant coaches popped into Nick Garritano’s office to say hello Wednesday. Dan Jaffe was sporting only three days of chin stubble; during the winning streak he had let his facial hair grow wild for superstitious reasons.

The Coyotes had gone five weeks between defeats. Dan Jaffe’s mustache was starting to look like that of dapper Buttercup Dickerson, who batted. 365 for the 1884 St. Louis Maroons.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.