Opportunities Abound for SMCC Baseball in 2022

PHOENIX --- 

As the 2022 season gets started, the South Mountain Community College baseball team lost more than 83 percent of its at-bats, and more than 57 percent of its innings pitched from the 2021 season. For some, this may cause panic. For Cougar head coach Todd Eastin, it represents opportunity.

"This year, more than some in the past has many unknowns. There will be a lot of opportunities for guys because nothing is set in stone, " said Eastin, who enters his 19th year at the helm of the Cougars. "There are a lot of ebbs and flows to the season, and we like to play the hot guy, so there will be lots of opportunities. It is what the players do with them." 

The Cougars finished 2021 with a 32-16 overall record and 25-13 mark in the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference to finish fourth in the Division I standings. SMCC has qualified for the postseason for nine-straight years, and Eastin figures this season will offer another challenging slate.

"There's nothing easy about our conference. We have always tried to play the toughest schedule possible early in the season to get us ready for league play," Eastin said. "This year, the ACCAC should be super competitive, and I expect the level of play to be up a notch. That is what the first two weeks of the season are about: seeing who competes through situations against tough opponents as we prepare for the conference season."

SMCC opens the year with a four-game series against Salt Lake City CC in Nevada. The Cougars also play four games in early February as part of the Zinger Classic at Sloan Park, the Spring Training home of the Chicago Cubs. They will play 24 home games in 2022, with the home opener set for Feb. 8 against Chandler-Gilbert CC.

Despite the small number of returning players, Eastin sees that group as a positive influence on all the new faces in the dugout. According to Eastin, the returning players reinforce the team's culture and demonstrate why they are still around to the new guys.

"We focus and emphasize the team, and that what a player does reflects on his teammates. We try to make smaller teams within the team to create competition," Eastin added. "It has been a mad dash to put in our team defense and offensive system. Everyone wants to get out there, throw hard, and take batting practice, but we have to be more structured to get in all our team offense and defense first. Thus far, they have taken to it well."

That message is instilled by a coaching staff whose continuity promotes consistency.

"Our message from year to year is consistent, and one aspect that we do well is innovating to find different ways to teach concepts," Eastin said. "The assistant coaches are great at reading the temperature of student-athletes and reinforcing the same concepts in new ways. They are experts at what they do, and I try not to mess with it. My job is to put it together at the end."

There is a lot of hard work ahead for the Cougars. Their mentality is to outwork their opponents because, resource-wise, they don't come close to the NJCAA Division I rivals. It has worked for Eastin for the past 18 years, and there is little reason to believe the 19th season will be any different.