LA Mission Baseball returns to the field after an extremely successful 2017 campaign, resulting in a super-regional run and several post-season honors for the Eagles. The 2018 team has been recently ranked 7th in Southern California pre-season polls.
This will be the 11th season at Mission for Head Coach Joe Cascione, who joined the Eagles in 2008 and has led them to Western State Conference Championships in 2014 and 2017, earning Coach of the Year honors both times.
Key returners are sophomores Tyler Grissom, Sam Gray, and Jesse Galindo, who were all 1st Team All-Conference winners in their WSC debuts. Grissom was selected to the 2017 Pacific Association Division Gold Glove Team after posting a .1000 fielding percentage as the Eagles' starting 2nd baseman last year, and he and Gray are also 2018 Pre-Season All-Americans.
The Eagles are also returning outfielder Mike Rosati and catcher Cade Spurlin, who is looking to have a breakout year after being injured for half of the season last year.
Cascione is expecting a big season from his pitching staff. The Eagles are bringing back Derek Damiani and Alex Rangel from 2017's playoff roster, and adding two transfers, Riyan Rodriguez and Jonathan Tyler. The freshman class has depth on the mound as well, with Thomas Gutierrez, Dominic Eberle, Louie Vargas, Bryan Suppan, Mac Lomas and Jacob Cevene joining the bullpen.
Other standout freshmen include catcher/outfielder Matt Elser, infielder Nico Valdez, and outfielder Andrew Scheinert.
"A well-balanced, disciplined, hard-working team will be the key to success this year for Mission Baseball," Coach Cascione said. "The talent is there. Now we have to bring our level of preparation to match the talent."
Baseball hits the field Friday, Jan. 26, at San Bernardino Valley College, and opens at home the next day at 12 p.m. Western State Conference play begins Saturday, Feb. 24 at West LA College.