By Juliana Stumpp

Staff Writer

This baseball season, our Cougars have been on their top game with impressive win-loss ratio of 22-2. The team has started the season off right and by the looks of it, will end the season even better. The Cougar Chronicle sat down with one of the team’s pitchers, Hunter Brown, a right-hand pitcher from Encinitas who is in his junior year as a business major.

Question: How long have you been playing baseball?

Answer: I’ve been playing my entire life. I started in tee-ball and played for a couple teams. I stopped playing in sixth grade but joined my high school’s team when I was a senior. I was scouted by Indiana University when I was at Grossmont Junior College.

Q: What is the best thing about playing at CSUSM?

A: I like that we have more freedom, the freedom to what will make the game better. The coaches are good at catering to what the player’s skills are and what they need personally.

Q: How do you balance athletics and academics?

A: I kind of have to find the time. It’s the same for any college student, except baseball takes the place of a job or working, but it helps at the same time because I need to be eligible to play so it motivates me to do well in school. I’m a student first.

Q: Who is your inspiration?

A: My father has always been there. Ever since I was a little kid, he would come to the games and support me. I’ve traveled around the country for baseball on his dime so he is really supportive and has given me so many opportunities I never thought were possible.

Q: Do you have any pre-game rituals to get you pumped up?

A: I usually try to stay calm and relaxed; I don’t want to get stressed about it. I’ve learned to balance my adrenaline and how to turn it on or off. I just treat game days like its practice, any other day.

Q: What is your practice schedule like? Do you have your own personal regimen?

A: We have practice from noon – 2:30 p.m., four to six days a week. I need to take care of my arm and make sure it stays in shape or else my body will break down. For me, it’s year round. Last year I was playing competitive baseball in Maryland. Since it was over summer, it’s not as strict but it kept me in shape.

Q: What is your future plans with the sport?

A: Ideally, I’d like to get drafted, but in the meantime I’m going to school for a degree in business marketing.