Corban University Baseball Preview

By Josh:

Through this blog my team and I have been able to write about a lot of great baseball related subjects.  Most have been stories that are for the national and at times the international audience of baseball fans.  These posts include stories about current major leaguers, the Hall of Fame, interviews with individuals connected to baseball in a lot of different ways. However, I also like to focus on local baseball.  I believe that it is important to promote baseball in my region in large part because of the ties I have.

Today’s college baseball preview is centered on a school that I have a lot of ties to. Both my wife and I graduated from Corban University, I currently work at Corban, and I’ve been able to interview a few players from Corban (one of the interviews comes out Friday).

Corban isn’t a large school, nor is it a national powerhouse for baseball, but it is a school with a baseball program that is on the rise and on the rise quick. Last year Corban’s team went 28-2.3 and made the post season for the first time since 2003, but ended the season with a little bit of disappointment as they were knocked out of the NAIA West tournament after losing their first two games.

This year’s team looks to rebound from the tournament losses and aim for bigger things.  This Corban team is a young team with 19 of its players being either freshman or sophomores, but that shouldn’t stand in their way.

When asked about if he thought the younger players would have an impact this season sophomore Marc Gallegos had this to say. “Yeah absolutely. They are going to have to a big role on our team because a lot of the freshman will be starters.”

Senior Derek Legg, a transfer from Cal State Fullerton, feels that a mix of young and old players is going to be good. “The young guys are going to be able to play good with the older guys help.  And then some of us old guys, who are feeling that our bodies are all banged up, will be inspired by the young guys and help us get that young feeling back.”

This season the Corban Warriors go into the season ranked 6^th in the West.  For some that can add pressure and for others that can be a source of motivation to play harder, but Legg sees it a bit differently.

 “I don’t really look into that stuff.  There’s been times my team has been ranked number one and we finish last and times we have been picked last and finished first. So although I respect the people that put those together it comes down to the fact that any team can beat any other team on a given day. We don’t have to worry about where we are picked or where we are ranked, we just have to play within ourselves.”

The goal of every team is to not only win games but to win championships, and that isn’t lost on Gallegos. “Absolutely the World Series is our goal. With our young guys, if they play like we all believe and know that they can, then we have a great chance of getting too the World series. I don’t want to say this is a building year because we have the ability so why not make it now.”

You can get more information about Corban through the Corban Warriors Web Site, the Warriors Facebook page, and the Corban Athletics Twitter.