The Sinclair men’s baseball team is returning this February to attempt to win their fifth straight Ohio Community College Athletic Association Championship.
Last season the Tartan Pride won 44 games, which earned them a #3 overall ranking in the National Junior College Athletic Association poll.
That ranking did not carry over to this year, so Sinclair will begin the season unranked.
Sixth-year head coach Steve Dintaman said that being ranked to start the season isn’t a big concern.
“We’ve never been preseason ranked in my tenure,” he said. “It’s just the way it is, there [are] 16 teams in Michigan and there are four or five in the south and they (the north region of the District 12) take all those votes.”
The Pride are returning 11 players (seven starters) and will begin the season with a road trip to Tennessee to play the University of South Carolina — Salkehatchie and #12 Walters State Community College on Feb. 16 and 17.
Dintaman said his pitching staff is probably the strongest and deepest group on the team. They have a platoon of strong arms who are capable of carrying the team to another conference championship.
As for the other side of the ball, the Tartan Pride offense is returning seven of nine everyday positional players for a team that held a batting average of .313 last year. Dintaman said having that kind of experience is immeasurable.
“The whole outfield that we have is going to be made up of second-year players, guys that are returners, guys that know what needs to happen and what goes on,” Dintaman said. “It should be interesting.”
Dintaman expects a big year from his sophomores, especially his infielders Austin Downing and Matt Sullivan. Downing held a .339 batting average last season, knocking in 40 runs as well, a team high. Dintaman said that Sullivan was touted as the team’s best overall player because of his versatility and work ethic.
Dintaman also expects big numbers from his new everyday catcher, sophomore Darwin Argumedo.
The catcher from Cartagena, Columbia said he expects the team to be ready to compete for another conference title this year.
“I think we got a pretty good team,” Argumedo said. “We all work hard. But I think we need to take things one game at a time. When we focus on one game at a time, then we’ll have 40 [wins] and then we’ll win the conference and keep going from there.”
Ohio Community College Athletic Conference season starts March 22 against Owens Community College and Dintaman feels the team will be ready.
“I’m very excited about our schedule for the upcoming season,” he said. “We have scheduled some tough non-conference games and we’ll play three preseason ranked teams before conference season begins. Our goal remains the same — win the conference and win the regional. The regional champion receives an automatic berth to the World Series and that’s where we want to be.”
Those who are interested can follow the team via the application gamechanger at gamechanger.io/home and searching for Sinclair.
Select games will also be broadcast courtesy of Gem City Sports Network. To find out more, visit gemcitysports.com.
Stats and information courtesy of Sinclair Baseball records, NJCAA.org, OCCAC.org and Dintaman’s 2013 season preview.