The College of Southern Nevada baseball team wrapped up the 2013 regular season at home last weekend, sweeping a four-game series against Colorado Northwestern Community College. The first win of the series clinched the Scenic West Athletic Conference championship for the Coyotes, giving them the No. 1 seed and the hosting rights of this week’s Region XVIII Baseball Tournament, being held at Morse Stadium on the CSN Henderson campus.
Presently, the Coyotes have won five games in a row and boast a 38-15 season record. CSN won the SWAC championship with a conference record of 26-10, finishing a full three games ahead of both in-state rival Western Nevada College and Salt Lake Community College. For head coach Nick Garritano, this is his first SWAC title – the school’s seventh – and it is quite an achievement for a team that has 10 less scholarships to offer than any other team in the nation.
The Coyotes are also ranked No. 8 in the nation in the most recent NJCAA Top 20 National Baseball Poll. CSN’s first game of the tournament is Thursday, May 9 at 12:00 PM against the winner of Wednesday’s game between fourth-seeded College of Southern Idaho and fifth-seeded Colorado Northwestern Community College.
The winner of this week’s Region XVIII Tournament advances to the Western District Tournament, which this year will be hosted by the Region IX champion (either Northeastern Junior College or Lamar Community College) in Colorado. The winner of the district tournament will advance to the Junior College World Series in Grand Junction, Colo. CSN has been to JUCO only twice before, most recently in 2010. The first time the Coyotes went in 2003, they won the national championship.
The CSN women’s softball team also wrapped up the regular season with a series sweep last weekend against in-state rival Western Nevada, improving their record to 33-25 overall, 26-21 in the SWAC. The ladies are on a 9-game winning streak, and hope to carry that momentum into this week’s Region XVIII Softball Tournament being held at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls, Idaho. The consecutive victories helped vault CSN up to the No. 3 seed after spending much of the season in 4th place.
The Coyotes’ first game is today (Wednesday) at 5 p.m. MDT against sixth-seeded Western Nevada College. You can follow the game live by clicking on the live box score link below:
http://www.sidearmstats.com/sidaho/softball/scoreboard.aspx
The winner of the Region XVIII Softball Tournament will advance to the Women’s Junior College World Series in St. George, Utah.