Year after year, the Cal State Fullerton baseball coaching staff starts the long road to the College Baseball World Series by shaping individual players into a cohesive team.

Junior infielder Gary Brown runs the bases during a Cal State Fullerton home baseball game. Photo courtesy mattbrownphoto.com

As some players leave and new recruits join the squad in the fall, coaches are left to pick up the pieces from the prior season and start the whole process over again.

This year doesn’t seem any different for Head Coach Dave Serrano, who began coordinating the fall intrasquad scrimmages last week as part of the official fall workouts taking place through Nov. 14, and concluding prior to the Thanksgiving recess.

“We’re playing games against each other and I think it’s just as good as playing an outside opponent,” Serrano said, after a recent scrimmage at Goodwin Field. “The two teams that we split up are pretty evenly matched and I think they could both be Division I baseball teams.”

Serrano said that the scrimmages are just the tip of the iceberg because it’s going to take a lot of training to get the players prepared for next season.

“I look at it as it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon for the whole year, so were just trying to get guys acclimated with playing the game the right way,” Serrano said.

The intrasquad games are very important because Serrano is going to get a fair assessment of what each player could do on the diamond, he said.

“It’s one week into it and I’m excited about how everything has gone,” Serrano said. “I love the energy of this team, but we’re really young.”

At the moment, Serrano is keeping things simple for the pitchers by letting them throw fastballs and change-ups but nothing too complex. They’re also only pitching two innings each, he said.

Junior short stop Christian Colon prepares to field a ground ball during a Titan home game. Photo courtesy mattbrownphoto.com.

“We’ve swung the bat well and we’ve thrown strikes,” he said. “That’s all we’re pretty much expecting from our team right now. We want them to put the ball in play, play hard and play catch.”

Serrano said that the coaching staff’s expectations are that each player trains and plays the game at the highest level so that they could succeed on the field.

“We have a long ways to go on the learning curve as a team, on how to play the game and how to win and win together,” he said.

Sophomore Noe Ramirez, a returning right-handed pitcher, said he feels that the team is already clicking and coming together as a cohesive unit.

“In order to be successful, we need a good team and a close team and I feel that already,” he said.

Ramirez, who started at the College World Series last season, said the team’s pitching didn’t suffer much because they have a lot of returning players from that position.

“Pitching, we’re going to be on it this year,” he said, adding that he’s focusing this off season on perfecting his change-up. “I feel that’s going to be our strongest thing.”

Like Ramirez, sophomore left-hand pitcher David Hurlbut is working on perfecting his change-up with the help of the coaching staff.

Hurlbut, a transfer from Diablo Valley College, said he’s also focusing on getting accustomed to being around a new group of guys and so far, he hasn’t had many problems doing so.

“To be honest, I can’t wait to get my start,” Hurlbut said, adding that he knows that he’s going to have to fight for a spot since he’s a new recruit.

He said he’s also trying to learn things from his teammates because some of them have a lot of knowledge that could benefit his play.

Ramirez, an Alhambra High School graduate, said he can’t wait for the season to start so that he could get another chance at pitching in the College World Series.

“We’ll be back in Omaha and you’ll see us on ESPN,” he said.

The scrimmages, which are six to nine inning games, are free and open to the public, and are scheduled to be held twice a week in October (except the last week, which will have three games).