College of Southern Nevada baseball gets noticed

On the front of the desk in the clubhouse office of College of Southern Nevada baseball coach Nick Garritano is a miniature leather baseball glove he uses as a business card holder. A full complement of business cards was stacked neatly in the pocket on Tuesday afternoon.

It appears nobody has stopped by to take one of the business cards in a while.

Maybe it’s because the junior college baseball season has only just begun. Maybe it’s because Garritano’s office at William R. Morse Stadium on the CSN campus in Henderson seems far removed from Las Vegas, where the action is.

Most likely it’s because that’s just the way it is in the junior college ranks.

You work hard, you play hard, you hit the cutoff man.

You play winning baseball in a vacuum.

You hope somebody notices.

The baseball people who vote in the national junior college poll have noticed. They have ranked CSN No. 2 in their preseason poll. They’ve noticed the Coyotes are getting pretty good at hitting the cutoff man again, and the other baseball things.

A couple of years ago CSN made it to No. 3 in the poll. But this is probably the most notice CSN has received since Bryce Harper — aka the Chosen One, aka the Gatorade Kid — enrolled in classes so he could be drafted into the pros a year earlier.

Big letters on the back of the clubhouse remind people that in 2003, before Garritano was coach, before Bryce Harper enrolled in classes, CSN was national champion. This was when Tim Chambers was coach. Morse Field, always emerald green and well manicured, is the House that Chambers Built. Only he had to literally build it, with his own sweat, with money he raised on his own.

That’s just the way it is in the junior college ranks. The state Legislature doesn’t write checks so kids can play baseball on the state nickel. Not in junior college. Not in Nevada.

Before Nick Garritano was CSN’s coach, he was baseball coach at Green Valley High where he won two state championships. Before that, he kicked field goals for UNLV. He wore No. 13; he was a helluva kicker for the Rebels.

His hair is shorter, now, by design. His midsection is the same, probably also by design.

He talks about playing in the Las Vegas Bowl, and when ESPN came on the air, how the cameras were showing him during pregame warm-ups, from the ground up, and how his midsection was straining against the waistband of his football pants. He said the ESPN announcers made a wisecrack about it being a big night for college football in Las Vegas, or something to that effect.

Nick Garritano thought that was pretty cool.

His coaching record at CSN is 143-91 over four-plus seasons, the plus being four games against Arizona Western on a muddy field last weekend. It includes a couple of leaner years after CSN was docked 10 scholarships for breaking rules under his predecessor Chris Sheff. At the time, most people weren’t aware there were rules in junior college.

This is his shaping up as his best team, at least if it stays healthy. Depth is usually hard to come by in the junior college ranks.

“Last weekend we went 2-2, and I’ve never been so excited about going 2-2 in my life,” Garritano said.

The Coyotes were supposed to host a bunch of teams from Arizona in a tournament last weekend. But when the rains hit, turning the infield into a lagoon, all the teams from Arizona went home to watch the Super Bowl, or get stuck in Super Bowl traffic, except for one.

Arizona Western stayed. Western and CSN sidestepped puddles and split four games on Saturday and Sunday. CSN won 6-1 and 14-3; Arizona Western won 10-9 and 3-2. Garritano said had the weather been better, had the Coyotes executed a play or two better, they’d be 4-0. He’s not wringing his hands that they’re not.

Four out of every five players on the roster are local kids, but CSN has this pitcher named Phil Bickford who transferred in from mighty Cal State Fullerton. Bickford is tall and has a shock of long blond hair sticking out from under his cap. He sort of looks like the Angels’ Jared Weaver, when Weaver threw wisps of smoke for the Dirtbags of Long Beach State.

Maybe he’s not Bryce Harper, but this kid Bickford was selected in the first round of the 2013 draft, 10th overall, by the Blue Jays out of high school. He pitched five innings against Arizona Western, striking out eight, walking nobody. Garritano had him on a pitch count because the weather and playing conditions were lousy.

Among the local kids, Gabe Gonzalez of Arbor View High looks pretty good, too, Garritano says. Gonzalez stands 6 feet 5 inches, weighs 220. You should hear the sound when the baseball hits the wooden bat when he’s swinging it.

The Coyotes are on the road this weekend for two games against Central Arizona in Coolidge and two against South Mountain Community College in Phoenix. Starting Feb. 13, CSN is home for two tournaments and eight games.

It would be nice if some local people drove out to Henderson to watch the local kids make loud sounds with their wooden bats, and to see Phil Bickford pitch. That’s what I was thinking when I took a business card from the miniature leather baseball glove on the front of Nick Garritano’s desk when he wasn’t looking.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.