ALEX FRANCO
STAFF WRITER

CSUSM’s baseball team is one of the fastest rising programs on the west coast. Baseball started only five years ago and Coach Pugh has built a winning team from the ground up, ending with a record over .500 in all but one of his seasons here at San Marcos. This week, Coach Pugh discussed the high hopes for this year’s team.

Coach Pugh coached at Mission Bay high school before he began his tenure at CSUSM. He saw great success as the head coach at Mission Bay, winning 8 CIF championships. Coach Pugh brought his championship pedigree to San Marcos, to begin building a (what is hoped to be) championship caliber team.

When asked what the biggest adjustment has been since moving to CSUSM, Pugh said starting a new program and simply getting off the ground when starting out with little scholarship money, no field and poor facilities. Pugh cites his inaugural group of players and dedicated coaching staff as a contributing factor as to why the program is where it is now.

When asked to describe his first five seasons, Coach Pugh said the first five years have been difficult for him personally as he said his teams faced a lot of up and downs and saw challenges in scheduling games against same-level opponents. Pugh thinks this is the best team he’s had in his five year tenure and is as good as anybody and is looking to get progressively better each and every week. He thinks the team can compete with anybody at the level they are at right now. Coach Pugh said there’s no way he would go back to the way things were after seeing the program flourish at its current rate.

The Cougars are coming off a successful season in which they won their first A.I.I conference title and came in third in their National’s bracket. Coach Pugh hopes this year will be different but with the always strong GSAC league teams such as Concordia (last year’s World Series Champions) and Azusa Pacific University.

The team begins its toughest stretch of the season the next month or so, according to Coach Pugh. The team begins play against the GSAC league, when it plays Azusa Pacific, then Concordia the following week. Coach Pugh believes these next 12 – 15 games will definitely be the benchmark test for the team to know where they stand against the best in the league. If they aren’t ready the coming weeks the team will be “in trouble.”

Starting off 6-1 and with some clearance issues the first two weeks of the season, Coach Pugh said the team “will be at full strength, the upcoming week,” and looks forward to seeing the full potential of his team play out.

Pugh said the team has great energy and is a “good group of  kids, and great students.” They carry a combined team 3.0 GPA, which the coach finds extremely important.

The team has a bevy of great players, with some senior leadership ta must have for any team, said Coach Pugh. Some players to look out for this season: Centerfielder Kyle Secciani, Second Baseman Trent Jemmet and Infielder Austin Coleman. Coach Pugh said he’s got a very experienced club who are all on the same page. Coach Pugh enjoys having some team leaders for the first time who drive the rest of the team to work hard.

This Saturday is the first big test against Azusa Pacific. Games against GSAC league teams are ones to watch this season, according to Coach Pugh.  With the team as good as it’s been this season, look for the team to hopefully repeat as A.I.I champions, which will be held CSUSM the first week of May.

I think I speak for all of us when I wish our Cougars baseball team good luck the rest of the season.