Cuesta Baseball opens the season this weekend with a three-game homestand against Riverside City.  The visiting Tigers are ranked 11th in the pre-season poll, while the Cougars settled in at the 25th spot.  The Tigers, who won the 2022 CCCAA State Championship, joined Cuesta as they both won a conference title and earned a playoff berth last season, before falling in the first round of the playoffs.  Both squads are eager to get on the field this weekend with the season-opener set for Friday (1 PM).  The Catfight continues with a game a day on both Saturday (1 PM) and Sunday (Noon).  Cuesta and Riverside have traditionally opened the season together.  Last season's series was played in Riverside, where Cuesta took the first two games, before dropping the finale in extra innings.

Returners- The Cougars will be bringing a new look to the diamond this week with only two all-Conference players returning to action.  2023 All-Western State Conference Pitcher Jackson Cloud is back to anchor the rotation and 2022 All-WSC Infielder Diego Murillo returns from his Redshirt year to solidify the middle infield.  The rest of the Cougars' returners combined for less than 50 at-bats for last year's sophomore-laden squad.  Cloud and Redshirt Sophomore Woody Brennan are Cuesta's only experienced pitchers.  Cloud anchored the Cougars' rotation with a team-leading 75.0 innings, while notching 70 strikeouts and authoring a pair of shutouts.  He finished the season a 7-2 record and posted a 2.28 earned run average.  Brennan, who Redshirted in 2023, is back after going 2-3 with a 4.36 ERA over 11 appearances and 33.0 innings as true freshman.  Brennan has demonstrated he has the stuff to make an impact on the rotation, after posting a 1-1 record with 3.32 ERA over 19 innings in his four starts as a freshman. In the field, Murillo is Cuesta's most experience player and does what he needs to get the job done.  He tied Cuesta's record for sacrifice hits (15) in 2022 and was second on the team in runs scored (39), while playing on either side of second base.  Sophomores Mateos Melkesian, Anthony Cannavino, Milo Merk and, Pranav Sundar and should get a chance to showcase their talents this season.   Melkesian led the quartet with a .292 average, which included a home run and accounted for 24 of the returning groups combined 42 at-bats.