A winning hand

CCSN's deep pitching staff leads team to 8-0 start

ALL/VIEWCommunity College of Southern Nevada's Ryan Tabor pitches during the 1st inning to Yavapai College at Lied Field Thursday, Feb. 3, 2005. The unstopable Coyotes took a 3-2 win in extra innings.---View Photo Ronda Churchill

If Tim Chambers were facing a poker opponent holding four aces, he wouldn't have to worry. Chambers would be holding at least six.

In Ryan Tabor, Josh Scofield, Shawn Olsen, Jesse Craig, Matt Wilson and Craig Heyer, as well as the balance of the Community College of Southern Nevada pitching staff, the coach can be confident with whomever he hands the ball to on the mound this season.

After the first eight games in which the Coyotes swept both the Coyote Baseball Slugout and the CCSN Coyote Classic at Lied Field in Henderson, CCSN pitchers had a remarkable 1.22 earned-run average and held their opponents to a .184 batting average.

CCSN, which went 39-20-1 last season and lost to eventual National Junior College Athletic Association champion Dixie State in the title game of the Scenic West Athletic Conference tournament, will rely heavily on its deep pitching staff in its attempt to return to the level the team reached two years ago when it won the junior college national championship.

When asked who his starting pitching staff was before the CCSN Coyote Classic on Feb. 3-5, Chambers stopped short of defining his first four starters as his set rotation.

"We really don't have a set starting pitching staff," he said. "We feel like we've got like 10 guys (who can pitch). We really do. Tabor, Scofield, Craig and Olsen are our front four and ... we expect those four to go all year for us. But we may plug another guy in."

In Tabor (6-foot-3, 180 pounds), Scofield (6-2, 205), Olsen (6-2, 200), Craig (6-3, 220), Wilson (6-4, 185) and Heyer (6-3, 205), Chambers has six big guys with the ideal baseball body type to hand the ball to. And it's not by mistake.

"We've developed a philosophy that's goes along the lines of professional scouts that the bigger, taller pitchers have an easier time throwing the ball downhill than a smaller guy," Chambers said. "The size also really helps from a durability standpoint. The big guys don't break down as easily as the smaller guys do because the smaller guys have to work so much harder to do the things the big guys do."

One of those big guys is sophomore southpaw Tabor, who started the season opener against Cochise County Community College (Ariz.). The Green Valley graduate, a veteran of the Gators' 2001 and 2003 state championship teams, plans to matriculate to Tennessee after the season if he doesn't sign a pro contract first. Tabor (5-3, 2.84 ERA last year), one of seven CCSN players to be chosen in last summer's Major League Baseball draft, was chosen by the New York Yankees in the 24th round.

Coming to Las Vegas from Newport High School in Bellevue, Wash., freshman Scofield is another left-hander with size. In his first start for CCSN, Scofield allowed just one run in a 9-1 win over College of Eastern Utah and started the season 2-0 with a 1.00 ERA.

The Coyotes' third starter is sophomore right-hander Olsen, who transferred in from Salt Lake Community College.

Chambers explained how Olsen ended up at CCSN.

"It's kind of a weird deal. He played in Salt Lake last year as a freshman. We actually saw him touch 94 (miles per hour) in the playoffs against another team in our conference," Chambers said. "He played third base all year for them but at the end of the year he didn't get drafted. He was very disappointed in that and he didn't feel like he was getting the exposure he needed and he called us."

Baseball America, which ranked the Coyotes as the second-best team in the nation this season behind Fresno City College (Calif.), tabbed Olsen as the fourth most-talented major league prospect now playing in junior college. The Timpanogos High School (Orem, Utah) graduate has signed to attend the University of Southern California in the fall.

With all that talent on the mound and the entire season in front of him, Chambers refused to deem any of his phenomenal pitchers as his go-to guy.

The final starting pitcher in Chambers' staff -- which he won't yet call a rotation -- is another local product, Basic graduate Craig. The sophomore right-hander, who has signed with Brigham Young University, started the season off 1-0 and hadn't allowed an earned run in two appearances.

Seeing a lot of work in relief so far is sophomore Wilson, a Palo Verde graduate who redshirted last season and started this year 2-0. Wilson went 3-1 with a 1.91 ERA on the Coyotes 2003 national championship team.

Also shining in his early appearances has been Heyer, a right-handed freshman from Coronado with a 1.13 ERA and 13 strikeouts in his eight innings pitched.

Chambers refused to single out any one of his pitchers.

"I don't know that we really have an ace," he said. "We really feel like we have 10 guys that could start for us and 10 guys that can pitch well. I couldn't pick the best guy of the bunch out."

Along with Tabor, Scofield, Olsen, Craig, Wilson and Heyer, CCSN also has sophomore left-hander Mike Dunn and freshmen right-handers Andy Primas (2-0, 0.00 ERA this year), Steve Hirschfield, Daniel Morris, Aaron Brady and Bryce Massanari to call upon when needed.

Chambers said his choice of closer depends on the situation.

"We sort of have a closer by committee," he said. "It just depends on the match-ups. If we need a softer guy who's a strike-thrower that has some good off-speed stuff, I'd go to Wilson or Heyer. Primas is probably the only real frontline closer-type guy for us but we'll also use Mike Dunn to close and we'll also use Bryce Massanari to close. Both of those guys throw the ball in the 90s."

The Coyotes will return home from a three-game road trip in El Paso, Texas, against El Paso Community College to host the inaugural Coyote Baseball Invitational Friday through Sunday.

CCSN plays Moraine Valley Community College (Ill.) on Friday at 1:30 p.m., Cypress College (Calif.) on Friday at 5 p.m., Fullerton (Calif.) College on Saturday at 1:30 p.m., Feather River College (Calif.) on Sunday at 10 a.m. and Prairie Baseball Academy (Canada) on Monday at 2 p.m.