Although the Cerritos College baseball team ended its season with a first round playoff exit earlier this month at home, the Falcons 2014 season was a huge success in many ways.
The Falcons won the South Coast Conference title with an overall record of 25-14 and a conference record of 15-6.
The 25 wins is an 11-win improvement from 2013 when the Falcons went 14-22 with a 9-12 record in conference play.
For his team’s huge turnaround, head baseball coach Ken Gaylord received the South Coast Conference coach of the year honor, while his ace, sophomore pitcher Jared Robinson was named South Coast Conference player of the year.
“Both awards were well deserved and our conference in baseball is very, very competitive,” said Cerritos athletic director Dan Clauss.
According to Clauss, the awards are very special because it’s been quite a while since the Falcons won the conference and made the post season.
“We had several major league scouts to put a radar on him (Robinson) and see how fast he pitches, so we expect him to develop successfully after leaving Cerritos and have a special career in baseball, “ Clauss said.
Clauss explained that the awards are decided in a vote by all of the coaches in the SCC.
“He’s (Robinson) been nominated for all-state and if he gets that he’ll be nominated for All-American,” Clauss said.
Coach Gaylord says his players deserve the most credit for his award because they’re the ones out on the field grinding toward their goal everyday.
The difference in win totals from last season to this season is mostly due to the talent on the field as Gaylord explains, “We had better players and my assistant coaches did a great job.”
Falcons pitching coach Ben Gonzalez thinks that Gaylord’s recognition is well deserved because of the surprising bounce back season he led the Falcons to.
“He has tons of baseball knowledge and if the players come out here and they’re open minded they’ll learn and it’s the same thing with us the coaching staff, we learn every time we’re out here.”
Being the pitching coach, Gonzalez got to spend a lot of time working and developing Robinson over the past two years.
“He (Robinson) won 10 games throughout the season, he was in the middle of our lineup, he hit for power, he had a bunch of RBI, he hit for average and was a leader on our team,” Gonzalez said.
