Managing Editor

The CSUB track team, students and staff members from the Student Recreational Center (SRC) took part in an Ultimate Frisbee tournament on Saturday, May 18 on the field adjacent from the SRC.

Amercia, Green Machine and Specialdeez were the three teams who participated in the tournament.

Specialdeez (made up of members from the track team) and Amercia were the first to take the field. Amercia took an immediate lead scoring two points against Specialdeez within minutes after the game began. They were victorious and won 5-2.

The second game was played between Specialdeez and Green Machine (made up of SRC staff members) assembled by Kareem Bland, the Sports and Facilities Coordinator for the Student Recreational Center at CSUB.

The track team scored three points right off the bat, but Green Machine made a comeback; scoring three points and tying the score. Specialdeez won the game 10-8.

At the final championship game Amercia got on to a quick lead, but Specialdeez caught up to lose 10-7. Amercia took home the title of ultimate Frisbee champions.

Each quarter, the SRC devises three informal tournaments for students to participate in. Dodgeball, badmitton, capture the flag and tennis are just a few of the intramural activities that have been chosen, according to Bland.

Bland who assembles the activities associated within the Intramural Sports program said, “Intramural sports are important because it is a way to play our favorite team or individual sport in a structured environment.”

Clubs and organizations on campus can also get involved in the Intramural sporting events.

“It is a low commitment activity and is also a good way for clubs and organizations to build teamwork with their respective groups,” said Bland.

Not only can you become familiar in how to play a specific sport, but you also have the opportunity to meet people on campus.

“Intramural sports is also a good way to meet new people and network with other individuals that you would not normally see on a campus day,” said Bland.

For further information on how you can be a part of the Intramural program and the many sports involved, step inside the SRC and check out the intramural desk or contact the Student Recreational Center at 661-654-4386 or Kareem Bland at 661-654-2729.

Sports Editor

On Wednesday, May 15, the Student Recreation Center held a speed climbing competition from 3-9 p.m.  at The Wall. Despite a small turnout for the free event, those who participated were greatly enthused. Henry Ngo is one such student. Ngo frequents the SRC to climb two to three days a week.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Ngo, a junior biology major said. “It’s cool to come in and climb for free and it’s also a great workout.”

The winner of the competition was determined by whoever completed the four sides of the Wall with the highest average time. Each climber was allotted three timed attempts at each side. Prizes of the competition included SRC t-shirts and chalk bags.

“We give them time to warm up so they can get a feel for the wall before they can climb it,” senior Spanish major Brenda Esparza said. Esparza kept track of the climbers’ times during the competition.

James Gellatly won the competition with an average time of 12.95 seconds. In second place came Enyinna Ayadiggnu, recording an average of 14.5 seconds. In third place was Kevin Ruiz with 15.8 seconds.

Whether one is a novice or an expert, strategy and planning mean as much to a climber as physical strength.  Pure strength can only get a climber so far.

“I was looking for the easy holds where you can launch yourself up,” Ngo said. “All that goes out the window when you’re up there, though.”

Of the seven participants in the competition, not a single one was a female student.

“You see more guys here on a daily basis than girls, and we don’t really know why,” Esparza said. “When I started climbing, I would see all these guys climbing hard routes and I thought, ‘There’s no way I can do this.’”

“Climbing takes time,” Esparza said. “I think girls get the impression that it’s all about strength and they just avoid it. It’s really just about ‘doing it.’ If you’re not falling, you’re not trying.”

The speed climbing competition will the last of the year. The bouldering competition takes place in the winter and the speed climbing competition takes place in the spring. Climbers are still welcome to come in to the SRC and climb recreationally.

The Wall, the rocklike sculpture after which the competition is named, is over 30 feet tall and is spotted with features and markers indicating courses of action for any climber brave enough to take on the challenge. CSUB students, male and female, can climb during the normal hours of operation at The Wall for free with a student ID.

Staff Writer

The Doré Theater will be opening a production that is bound to tug at the heartstrings of any viewer who has experienced loss. Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” is a play that focuses on the financial troubles of an aristocratic Russian woman named Lyubov Andreievna Ranevskaya. The family’s estate, which houses a well-known cherry orchard, is about to be auctioned to pay for the mortgage, and the play centers around the potential loss of this monumentally sentimental property. Strangely though, Chekhov intended the play to be a comedy.

I was lucky enough to be present for a few of what the play’s director, Dr. Maria-Tania Becerra, called “problem scenes.” And although to the trained eye, there might have been discrepancies, I found them to be quite enjoyable, and it was rather easy to lose myself in the production even though it wasn’t a production night.

Emily Candia, the actress playing Ranevskaya in the CSUB production, does not agree with that assessment, however. “Through the perspective of my character, no (the play is not a comedy). She has a really hard past.” Said Candia, detailing the pre-play circumstances her character experienced. Before the curtain has even lifted, Ranevskaya has experienced the deaths of both her husband and their son. As a character, Ranevskaya’s main issue is her vice grip on the family’s old ways, and she serves to illustrate a Russian aristocracy that can’t let go of the past.

Another character, former serf Yermolai Lopakhin, is almost the opposite of Ranevskaya. Having become the wealthiest character in the play from such low beginnings, Lopakhin represents a grave threat to the outdated aristocracy in Russia. Miguel Torres, the actor behind Lopakhin, had other thoughts on the intentions of the play: “My perspective on Chekhov is like life. Your life is a comedy and a tragedy. You just have to choose.”

The suggestion for the play came from another actor in the play, Kevin Lohmann. Lohmann said, “I love this play. For those of us in the theater, Chekhov is equivalent in difficulty to Shakespeare. It’s a big challenge.” He was cast as Firs, a servant of the main family. “He sort of represents that dying ideal (of the old aristocracy),” said Lohmann in regards to Firs’s significance in the play.

As far as the comedic or tragic value of the play, he said, “Yes from my character’s perspective. A lot of the characters end up in better circumstances.”

From what I saw during the rehearsal, the actors were able to capture not only the general feeling of entitlement that Chekhov wanted to convey as such a large part of the aristocracy, but also the intense feeling of loss that not only Ranevskaya felt, but the entire family goes through. Whether the play is one of joy or one of sadness is still up for debate, but I can say that it is indeed a must see for anyone interested in the performing arts.

The play opens this week on Thursday May 23rd at 8 P.M. continuing through the 25th. The play opens at the same time on May 30th-June 1st and at 2 P.M. on June 2nd.

Staff Writer

It seems to me that recently the trends in fashion have focused on a policy of skin, skin and more skin. Amidst the increasingly revealing styles found on campus, one group of students that upholds and promotes modesty is the Muslim Students Association (MSA). This past Thursday I participated in the Hijab Challenge. During this challenge MSA invited the public to sign a petition supporting Muslim women who follow their code of modesty, known as hijab. They also provided over a hundred free headscarves (an important part of hijab) for any woman who wanted to feel for herself what many Muslim women experience every day.

I was initially quite nervous to put on the hijab. I worried about being over heated, which was always a question in my mind as I saw Muslim women covered from head to toe in the dead of the Bakersfield summer, but thankfully the weather was almost cool on Thursday. I also worried about what people would think when they saw me wearing the hijab. As someone who usually struggles to stand out, I was for the first time terrified of not blending in.

My fears were at once confirmed and discarded when the scarf was finally put on my head. There was a definite change in how people viewed and responded to me. I found some hesitant to answer questions. Others stared as I walked the campus with my head covered. But instead of feeling embarrassed for myself, I felt sorry for those who were so fundamentally set in their prejudice that they would treat me differently because of a piece of clothing.

“We want people to see us for who we really are and not what we look like physically,” senior Goka Alshaif, president of MSA, said “It’s about modesty and individuality.”

To Muslim women hijab is a way of setting themselves apart from the world, making a statement that they are Muslim, and it is also a way for them to show devotion to God (Allah). According to Alshaif hijab is not just covering your head, “it is a way you carry yourself and dress,” and it applies to both men and women.

Hijab means different things to different people; some women choose not to wear the headscarf and focus instead on the inner hijab, behaviors of modesty and dignity. Others feel that wearing the scarf is an outer representation of an inner commitment to hijab and choose to express that. A woman who follows hijab closely wears the scarf around any man she is not related to.

With more than 150 Muslim students on campus and hundreds more accepting the Hijab Challenge that day, the remaining student body was sure to notice them. Freshman David Alvarez responded to my experience with the challenge by saying, “I would do it if I were a woman.”

In fact, much of the vocal response from those not participating in the challenge was quite positive. Student Danica Adoc said that people “have a right to wear the hijab. I don’t feel any discomfort about it.”

Sequoia Parrott, a senior who also took the Hijab Challenge, said, “Even though I personally am a Christian, I think it’s important to understand other religions and how they feel.” Parratt followed by stating, “I support their religious choice and I hope others will support my religious choices as well.”

If I learned anything from participating in the Hijab Challenge it was that promoting religious understanding at CSUB is important to create an equal and open campus life. No one should have to walk through her school and feel like she is being judged based on a religious choice. And for those existing prejudices to disappear, we who accept and support hijab and other religious lifestyles like it must be willing to speak up. Signing the pledge and taking the Hijab Challenge was one way I chose to do so. How will you?

Staff Writer

“A cardboard belt would be a waist of paper,” said Dr. Russel Schuh, as laughter erupted to meet his play on words illustrated on the projector.

Schuh, a faculty member of the UCLA Department of Linguistics, gave a lecture titled “Amusing and Abusing with Language” in the Business Development Center on Wednesday May 15.

Although Schuh specializes in African languages, he also uses humor to illustrate various linguistic concepts that can be difficult for students to grasp. In his lecture, Schuh examined what makes a statement humorous and how slight variations in words can drastically alter meaning and convey comedic elements.

“I’m up in front of 350 students who are looking to be entertained. One way to entertain them is to use jokes,” said Schuh when asked how he got into teaching a linguistics class with an emphasis in humor and puns.

For students, some classes on topics outside of their major can be dry and boring, but Schuh’s teaching style is a way to get students interested in linguistics.

“Mentally, we are all linguists. Tons of humor is based on linguistic analysis,” Schuh said.

Schuh briefly analyzed the arbitrary relationship that exists between how a word sounds and what a word means in relation to humorous conveyance or misunderstanding.

“It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but I think the informal approach worked in this situation,” said Robyn Thompson, a graduate student pursuing an M.A. in English. “Yeah, I guess it was,” added Thompson, when asked if the lecture was both entertaining and interesting.

The informal approach of the lecture was to accommodate students who are not familiar with linguistics and to give them the ability to learn about the study of language and also have a laugh.

“It actually goes back to the original goal of running the ‘Lectures in Language and Linguistics,’ to bring in linguists from across the state to talk about their topics of interest. The topic needs to be fairly general because most attending do not have a linguistics background,” said Dr. Sophia Adjaye, a professor of English at CSUB whose specialization is in linguistics and phonology.

Schuh’s talk was a balance between both entertainment and education. The lecture was an opportunity for students interested in language and linguistics to expand upon their knowledge with a unique and contrasting view of the discipline.

“What’s the definition of a will? It’s a dead giveaway,” Schuh exclaimed toward the end of his lecture to illustrate an idiomatic pun.

Although time constraints limited Schuh from discussing the abusing aspects of language, his lecture on the amusement of language was well-received by the audience. Schuh’s lecture was made possible by funding from donations from the Warren family, Adjaye’s work in reaching out to linguists and Sigma Tau Delta.

In the Winter quarter, Chris Wen-Chao-Li, from San Francisco State University, gave a lecture titled “Foreign Names into Native Tongues: How to Transfer Sound Between Languages.” Also, CSUB was visited in the 2012 Fall quarter by Dr. Edward Finegan, from the University of Southern California, who gave a lecture titled “Martha and Aretha Claim Defamation: Linguistics and the Cooperative Principle.”

“The Lectures in Language and Linguistics” at CSUB run three separate lectures throughout the academic year, one per quarter, so lectures will resume after the end Summer quarter.

Staff Writer

Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr., manages to save the president of the United States from a terrorist plot in Iron Man 3 while experiencing horrific anxiety attacks. Magically, he is less a machine and more of a man in this episode of the trilogy. According to Christopher Orr of http://www.theatlantic.com, “He removes the slit-eyed helmet and headlamp breastplate, ruby-red gauntlets and boot-jets–and left just the man.”

Iron Man’s sense of humor is exemplified throughout the film by using superhero satire and some clichés. Downing Jr., through his cleverness with words and actions, brings excitement to the film in a very humanizing and entertaining ways.

“There is no actor working today who is better suited to deliver pop-fused banter as well as Downey Jr. does in this film,” Orr said.

Complete with a cast of superstars, including a girlfriend named Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), a villain named the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), another more powerful villain named Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) and a best friend and comrade against evil named “Rhodey” (Don Cheadle), the characters battle good over evil, from beginning to end.

The Mandarin, an Osama Bin Laden type character, continually appears on everyone’s television screen disrupting their programs to show random bombings. The bombings are initiated because he hates the United States, although for no apparent reason. Iron Man invites him to a confrontation at his own house. That’s a big mistake because the Mandarin sends warfare to destroy Iron Man’s home, triggering the use of weapons not seen in any of the other Iron Man movies.

The plot thickens as Iron Man is thrown helplessly into an unknown neighborhood, and he has to hide in a garage. A boy who lives there and is intrigued by electronics later discovers him. The two work together to get Iron Man back in his armor, just in the nick of time. He discovers the Mandarin is a fake villain and an actor paid by an anonymous source to play the part of by a villain.

Killian is discovered as the true villain, and his grand plot to “control supply and demand of war on terror” at any cost must be thwarted by Iron Man and his team. Together, the boy, his comrade “Rhodey” and his girlfriend battle Killian and save the president and the planet.

The relationships throughout the film show innocence and genuine love and caring between the characters, making Stark appear to be the hero and not Iron Man. Because Iron Man spends most of the movie as a man and not dressed in his armor as a super hero, he appears to be more human.  He goes as far as to call himself a “mechanic” when he speaks to the boy for the first time, and to his girlfriend when he explains why his was more attentive to the robots instead of her.

As villains have changed since the original Iron Man during the Cold War, the heroes have changed to be more modern and identifiable for today’s family audience. After the film, several people made comments about how much they liked the movie.

“Iron Man 3 is great, but I liked the first Iron Man better because it was original and it started out fresh. I work here and I get to see a lot of movies free, so when I say Iron Man 3 was good, It was really good,” Cameron Denny, 18,said.

“Iron Man 3 gets my vote. I liked it because it culminated with many Iron Men fighting the villains instead of just one and I thought that was real creative,” Manny Evangelista, 21, said.

Senior Staff Writer

California State University Bakersfield appears to have a low graduation rate. The average for its four-year graduation rate is 15 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

CSUB’s  rate of 15 percent which is below the 17.4 percent average of the CSU system as a whole.  However it’s six-year graduation rate of 41 percent is above the the CSU systems average of 37.4 percent.

In comparison, the University of California system has an average four year graduation rate of 48 percent and a six-year average of 70 percent.

While the percentages of students who graduate within four and six years appear low, every year a large number of students graduate.

“It’s more about volume,” said Mike Uhlenkamp, director of media relations for the California State University system. 95,000 students will graduate during the 2012 to 2013 academic year. This is nearly a quarter of the 437,000 students that are currently enrolled in CSUs.

While the four-year graduation rates for all 23 CSUs is below 20 percent, according to Uhlenkamp the CSU system is more focused on the six-year graduation rate.

Uhlenkamp attributes the low four-year and six-year averages to the type of students who attend a CSU.

“Graduating in four years isn’t important for everyone. For our system the majority of students work. As a result, they re not able to take a full course load every semester or quarter,” he said

However, there are systemwide initiatives that are focused on increasing  graduation rates by 8 percent by 2015. This will place CSUB above the national six year  average  of 48.8 percent for all colleges in the United States according to the National Student Clearinghouse research center.

These initiatives include normalizing the amount of units required to obtain a bachelor’s degree to 120 semester units or 180 quarter units. This will decrease the amount of classes that students must take for more intensive majors, such as engineering, that may have been 10-20 units over the CSUs current goal which means students in the program have to stay for additional semesters.

Another initiative is the Early Start Program. This program allows freshmen who will be entering the CSU system in the fall to take remedial courses over the summer. These courses may be taken online or on campus at the CSU they will be attending, a nearby CSU or at a California Community College.

“In 2007 CSUB began a pilot program, called Early Start, to offer summer classes in english and math for incoming students who weren’t  ready for college level courses,” said Colleen Dillaway, CSUB’s  public affairs director.

“We’ve seen quite a bit of success with that program. In fact, in 2011 the CSU system adopted it and it is now a mandatory program during program,” said Dillaway.  “In 2009, for example, for the students who were enrolled in Early Start during that summer the next year 100 percent of them were still enrolled in classes at CSUB. Where as those students who needed remediation and did not participate in Early Start only 59 percent of those students continued enrollment at CSUB beyond their freshman year,” said Dillaway.

The amount of increased retention remained for those who participated in the program. In 2010 the group of students whp participated in Early Start had a retention rate of 78 percent compared to a rate of 61 percent for students in need of remediation but who did not enroll in the program according to Dillaway.

“We are seeing retention and retention translates to improved student outcome,” said Dillaway.

Also, while CSUB’s graduation rate may appear low, this is also because of the amount of students who transfer to other colleges. According to the CSUB website, of the 676 full-time freshman students who began attending CSUB in 2002 33.9 percent of the students transferred to another college before graduating from CSUB.

Just over 55 percent of students who enrolled in fall 2002 were expected to graduate with a bachelor’s degree within six years.

Senior Staff Writer

Mayor Harvey Hall spoke with CSUB staff, faculty and students on May 16 for the Brown Bag Luncheon discussion in the Stockdale Room inside the Runner Cafe.

Hall outlined many of the current issues the city is involved with and how he is looking forward to continuing the city’s efforts to support programs like the Keep Bakersfield Beautiful litter clean-up campaign and the homeless to work initiative in conjunction with the Bakersfield Homeless Center.

The city recently approved the plan to work with homeless persons at the Bakersfield Homeless Shelter to pay them minimum wage to clean up litter along the highways five days a week, according to Hall.

These are regular residents of the Bakersfield homeless center but now they are going to have full-time employment, being paid minimum wage … but we’re hopeful, that after they get some paydays, they’ll be able to remove themselves from the homeless center and comply with our housing first ten-year plan and be able to secure housing for them,” Hall said.

Hall discussed with attendees that he adopted a 10-year plan to end homelessness in Bakersfield and that he is proud to report the city has reached its fifth year of the plan and that they have made a lot of progress. He also stressed the importance of community support in making the second half of the city’s goals successful.

He added that each day there are about 1,500 people that are homeless in Bakersfield.

“As we get more sponsorships we’re going to be able to take on more of the homeless individuals to help us with the litter pick up program,” Hall said, applauded by those in attendance.

CSUB student Stephanie Perez applauded the city’s effort to employ the homeless and said that she would like to volunteer in one of the city’s clean-up events, too.

“I didn’t know there was a program that employed homeless people and I think that’s really great because that will help them get off the streets and earn money to help them get on their feet. I think that’s really amazing,” Perez said.

Keeping Bakersfield litter-free was another key item on the agenda. He discussed how Bakersfield fails in comparison to other cities he has visited and is determined to make the city’s highways not only litter-free but attractive, too.

Hall has been working with Cal-Trans for the opportunity to have volunteers work along Highway 178 and Highway 58 to pick up trash, as well as trustees from the Sheriff’s department to clean up the medians, which volunteers are not allowed to do. Kern County probationary recipients will be utilized to clean up and service the vegetation areas along the highways, too, according to Hall.

“We’ve got to develop the mentality of community pride,” Hall said about Bakersfield residents taking personal control of the litter problem.

Freshman Angel Calderon was impressed with how Hall is determined to improve the beautification of the city, agreeing that the city’s litter is an issue.

“I think that the topic that was most interesting was about the litter. I Actually think there is too much trash, not only on the freeways but also on some of the streets in the city,” Calderon said. “I think [the clean-up programs] will help a lot of people and will give a clear image of the efforts the city is doing to make the city beautiful.”

In addition, Hall discussed the city’s traffic issues, especially the ongoing construction on the roadways, citing that the city’s population is at nearly a half a million people and that Bakersfield needs to expand its roads in order to serve its driver. He urged many to consider the use of bicycles or public transportation, too.

Traffic signals were another point of discussion, particularly those with cameras, which Hall said add to the city’s revenue though he would prefer people drive safer. He added that the Stockdale and California Avenue intersection is the most popular, generating nearly 400 tickets since the beginning of the year.

After Hall’s presentation, CSUB President Horace Mitchell addressed the audience and applauded Hall for his contributions and support to the university through the years.

“He has been a supporter of the university, personally and financially, and he has been helpful to us in our fundraising,” Mitchell said, noting that Hall was instrumental in helping CSUB transition into a Division I university.

Hall is the 25th mayor to serve Bakersfield and is now entering his fourth consecutive term, which will make him the longest serving mayor in Bakersfield’s history. He discussed that people are always asking him how he feels about being the mayor, he replied by saying that “the mayor’s life is fun and enjoyable,” and that “it’s the best job in America.”

Sports Editor

Departing from the Town and Country Parking lot to Foghat’s ‘Slow Ride”, the Bakersfield biking community commemorated bicyclists that have been injured or killed while on the roadways for the eleventh year of the Ride of Silence.

The origin of the event goes back to 2003 in Dallas, TX where an estimated 1,000 cyclists came together to show their support for bike riders who have been injured while on the streets.

“It’s a worldwide event to remember those that have been killed or injured on a roadway while riding a bicycle,” Bike Bakersfield, Membership and Communications Director, Brad Swanlund said.

Originating in 2003, the event has grown with each passing year, occurring on the third Wednesday of May at 7 p.m. In 2013, the Ride of Silence saw 368 registered events, spanning 26 countries and all 50 states. Participating in the event for over a handful of years, about 50 cyclists in the Bakersfield community showed up to show their support for those that have been injured on the roads.

“There are definitely people here in Bakersfield that have been killed so you’ll have some riders that are riding specifically for them,” Swanlund said.

“I knew people that have been killed or injured while cycling and I’m an avid cyclist myself, so I decided to give up some of my time to commerate them,” cyclist Steve Hartwell said. “They basically gave up their lives for us.”

To show support, cyclists wore black and red ribbons on their arms, indicating whether they knew someone who had been killed or involved in an accident themselves.

“The black is in memory of anyone that’s been killed and the red is if you have been injured on a roadway,” Swanlund said.

Riders of all ages showed up to show their support, sporting helmets and lights while cruising at a pace between 10 and 12 mph.

“Usually, everything we do is ages eight to 80. If it’s safe enough for a little brother to do it or if it’s safe enough for your grandpa to do it then it’s good for everybody,” Bike Bakersfield Educational Specialist and senior criminal justice major, Jonathan Moo said.

The event in Bakersfield lasted about nine miles. Riders went down Stockdale Hwy, hooking a right at Wible, Ming and Gosford before turning left on Stockdale to return to the meeting location. During the ride, no words were uttered. Motorists with questions about what was going on were given cards explaining the significance of the event.

“It’s not like critical mass where we are trying to disrupt traffic but we want people to see us. We want people to know that we’re out here,” Swanlund said. “The message for cyclists and cars is really just ‘share the road.’”

Along with the message of sharing the road, Bike Bakersfield also spreads the word of bike safety to local schools.

“Specifically for the month of May I’m pretty busy. We work with about 20 schools per year,” Moo said.

Being that May is Bike Month, Bike Bakersfield has been actively putting on events this month, with more to come.

“We have our full moon ride coming up on Friday the 24th. For that we expect anywhere from 100 to 200 people,” Swanlund said. “We ride along the bike path from Beach Park to the Marketplace. We’re going to have a barbecue at six and the ride at eight.”

McKenzie’s road to ‘Runnerhood started at an early age on the Little League fields upon which he developed a love for the game similar to his father’s.

“I’ve been playing since I was 3 years old,” McKenzie said. “Any time of the year that I could play baseball, I was playing. My dad really got me into it.”

Senior pitcher Jeff McKenzie has pitched himself to 12 wins this season.

With McKenzie’s stats over the past two years, one would think he is a natural pitcher. Eighteen wins and 146 strikeouts over 204.2 innings pitched in the past two years is impressive for any Division I pitcher. However, throughout his career as a high school ballplayer at Oak Ridge High School and early into his junior college career at San Joaquin Delta College, he did not get much experience on the mound.

“I was mostly an outfielder,” McKenzie said. “My junior and senior year of high school, I was the starting right fielder for my varsity team. I only pitched probably two or three innings over those two years. I pitched every once in a while growing up, just whenever they needed me to pitch.”

Those two or three innings of experience as a pitcher came in handy during McKenzie’s days at SJDC.

“Over the summer before my sophomore year of college, I was our ace pitcher and pitched well,” McKenzie said. “I had over 80 innings and 80 strikeouts and that’s really where I developed as a pitcher.”

After helping SJDC win its first Community College Athletic Association Championship since 1959, McKenzie was honored with an MVP award that drew attention to the up and coming lefty.

“Jeff was a solid player and a solid person of great character,” SJDC Head Coach Reed Peters said. “He is an extremely hard worker. He’s the perfect student athlete.”

Out of junior college, McKenzie was recruited by Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Georgia, a Division II school and CSUB, a program enjoying its new growing strength in Division I. McKenzie chose to come to CSUB not only to play at the Division I level, but to show that he could in the faces of those who doubted him.

“Nobody thought he could play D1,” McKenzie said. “I was told growing up that I would never play D1 baseball. I had a chip on my shoulder and I wanted to show everyone that I could play at this level.” Standing 6 feet tall and weighing 170 pounds, some scouts and coaches told McKenzie he could not play due to his lack of a dominating figure, a common staple among power pitchers.

But McKenzie is not a power pitcher.

“I don’t blow people away with 95 mph fastballs. I throw mid-80s,” McKenzie said. “My thing is pinpoint accuracy. I can hit any spot at any time with any pitch.”

For McKenzie, “any pitch” includes a fastball, changeup, cutter, slider, knuckleball and his most effective pitch: the curveball.When he says “any spot,” he means it. McKenzie has only walked 24 batters so far, the least of any pitcher on the ‘Runner pitching staff with at least 60 innings pitched.

“The pitch that I’ve always relied on growing up and to this day has been my curveball,” McKenzie said. “When that’s on, I know it’s going to be a good day.”

McKenzie says that much of his success this season has come from Head Coach Bill Kernen’s philosophy stressing mental fortitude, a feature valued by all ballplayers, professional and college-level.

“His philosophy is heavy on visualization,” McKenzie said. “You can throw millions of bullpens by visualizing but you can only throw a couple hundred when you can actually throw them. I had good command before, but now I have even better command. Being able to know what pitches I want to throw beforehand and visualizing it before it happens then actually doing it after visualizing it has really contributed to my success this year.”

The ‘Runners will have to play next season without McKenzie, seeing as he is a senior. However, he does not have any worries for next year’s squad. “I think this program is an up and coming one,” McKenzie said.

“This year will be our best year of the program so far. With some good recruits, we can be a nationally contending team.”

McKenzie will be graduating this spring as a communications major with a concentration in digital media and a minor in history. McKenzie hopes his arsenal and Kernen’s pitching philosophy can take him to the next level, as he looks forward to the MLB First Year Player Draft.