Last spring when students Chris Wolf and Sean Pellerin felt the itch to play baseball again, they began the process of creating their own team at Long Beach State.
What transpired in the following months was the creation of the club team aptly named the Long Beach State Baseball Club.
The club baseball team, in its first year of existence, is for CSULB students who wish to play in a competitive baseball atmosphere outside that of the school’s more familiar NCAA team.
“This team is here to give guys the second chance to play again,” Wolf said. “For guys who thought they were done.”
The four students who collectively coach the team, including Wolf and Pellerin, held tryouts for the team in September where more than 40 CSULB students came out trying to make the 18-man roster.
“We held practice for anyone who wanted to come over the summer,” shortstop Dustin Gramenz said.
A condition the players had to agree upon once they made the roster was maintaining a grade point average above 2.5.
“We’re pretty strict on grades so if you get below a 2.5 we consider you ineligible,” said Gramenz. “We actually do progress reports.”
Like any other beginning club sport, the founders of the team had to first secure a home field before scheduling games. That’s where Director of Club Sports and Recreation Rita Hayes came in.
“Rita helped us out throughout this whole process. She pretty much walked me through it all,” Wolf said.
After working toward making the team official, the club received confirmation in May. From there, the club looked to secure a practice field as well as a home field.
“It took us five months to find a practice field. [El Dorado Park] is not the greatest but it works,” Wolf said.
Before finding suitable fields the founding members were able to raise $4,000 through several fundraising methods such as profit sharing, while planning a car wash in the near future.
Along with raising funds, the team has secured known baseball companies Mizuno and Diamond Sports as sponsors. Furthermore, Nike has agreed to assist the team in creating a uniform for its spring season.
Currently, the team is competing in its fall season, which is a warm up for the spring season starting in February.
Once opening day comes, the team will be playing in the National Club Baseball Association, where it faces opponents with names that Dirtbag fans might be familiar with, such as UC Santa Barbara, Loyola Marymount and UCLA. The only difference is that the team will play its club equivalent squads of those schools.
With its fall season underway after splitting a doubleheader with UCLA’s club team on Oct. 24, the Beach Club Baseball team has high expectations for the upcoming spring season.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we actually do win our division,” Gramenz said. “There’s been a lot of talk about us around the league that we’re going to be pretty good.”