Sports Editor

After winning the Western Athletic Conference Tournament and earning the school its first NCAA Division I Tournament win in any sport, Mayor Harvey Hall decided to honor the CSU Bakersfield baseball team with Medals of Appreciation at the Icardo Room on June 11.

“Whenever you have a championship-caliber team as the baseball team has been this year, they deserve recognition,” Hall said. “I’ve been very happy to provide them recognition for all of their accomplishments this year and how they were able to be viewed on national television in the regional finals. I think that is terrific and speaks very well for our baseball program.”

Hall, who earlier this year awarded the volleyball team wi

th a similar honor for being the first CSUB team to win a WAC Tournament, added that these are opportunities for him to give the athletic teams of CSUB the recognition that they deserve.

Sophomore David Metzgar, who was the WAC Tournament MVP, said that he didn’t realize how significant their accomplishment were.

“It was pretty cool,” Metzgar said. “I thought we were done receiving things for winning the championship. I was at [Lancaster], but I came back for this because this was a big opportunity for us. At first, I didn’t realize that it was that big, so it was pretty amazing knowing that not only it made our school proud but also the whole community of Bakersfield proud.”

The Roadrunners (37-24-1), which tied the record for most wins in a season, won the WAC Tournament thanks to a come-from-behind 5-4 win over Seattle University on May 24. That came a day after the Roadrunners rallied to win an elimination game over Seattle in the tenth inning, 6-5.

With the WAC Tournament win, CSUB clinched a spot in the NCAA Regionals. The Roadrunners first game was against the UCLA Bruins. Errors cost them in that game as they lost 7-2 to the Bruins on May 29.

With their backs against the wall in another elimination game, the Roadrunners beat the Mississippi Rebels, who were in last year’s College World Series, 2-1 on May 30.

CSUB had to face UCLA once again on May 31, but this time they kept the game close only down by one run for 6 2/3 innings. However, UCLA scored five runs in the seventh, which sparked the Bruins’ 9-1 win over the Roadrunners.

Senior pitcher Hayden Carter, who was WAC Pitcher of the Year and was the winning pitcher in CSUB’s win over Ole Miss, said that it was a good way to end this season.

“It was pretty cool,” Carter said. “I think everyone is about to head home, so it’s a good way to send everyone off. Looking back on it in a couple years, it’ll be pretty cool. Doing this for the city of Bakersfield and putting them on a national scale, probably made a bigger impact than what we think we did not only for the school but for the community. When you see the mayor here and President Mitchell here supporting you, it’s pretty cool.”

Metzgar added that he sees this team and program only going up from here.

“We are just going to take bigger steps,” he said. “We got our feet wet and got in the tournament, but next year and on I think we are really going to go far.”