With the hope of smelling that fresh-cut green grass after the rain, the men’s baseball team is ready to come out and play.

The Cosumnes River College baseball team is gearing up for a new season after getting knocked out in the Northern California Sectionals in the California Community College Athletic Association playoffs last season.

Entering his 19th season at the helm of the team, Head Coach Tony Bloomfield is ready to get out of the rain and play on a regular basis.

“We have cabin fever; we’re tired of being inside,” Tony Bloomfield said.

The first official games start within the week and the scheduled regular season lasts until the end of April.

The Hawks bring back a lot of experience from last year’s roster, including sophomore starting pitcher Thomas Galart.

Galart was originally at the University of Nevada, Reno, until he suffered an injury his freshman year. He decided to play for CRC the next season.

“I knew if I ever went to a junior college, I would come here because of how great of a coach that coach Bloomfield is,” Galart said.

Galart made 22 pitching appearances last season where he pitched 42.1 innings and posted an earned run average of 5.31 with 37 strikeouts.

Although the Hawks bring back a lot of experience, they still have one of the smallest teams in the area.

“We have the smallest squad in the Northern section again,” said Tony Bloomfield. “We have 24 players compared to people who have 35 to 40 guys.”

The team has just one month before they jump into the grueling Big 8 conference schedule, which also includes Sacramento City College, American River College and last year’s state champion Santa Rosa Junior College.

“The state champions have come out of the Big 8 seven out of the last 10 years,” Tony Bloomfield said.

Sophomore shortstop Brett Bloomfield is hopeful of the team staying healthy for the upcoming season due to injuries taking away from the team’s stamina last year.He said that health is going to be big for the team.

“Even though we started out hot at the beginning and did good in league, we ran out of gas at the end,” Brett Bloomfield said.

Brett played in all 44 games for the Hawks’ last season, contributing a .224 batting average, 38 hits and 24 runs batted in.

The players and coaching staff both said that the chemistry on the team was the one of the biggest assets they had overall.

Sophomore first baseman Billy Rockafeller added that even though new players join the team every year, it doesn’t change the rapport the team builds over fall ball into the season.

“We like to bring in the new guys and make them part of the group,” Rockafeller said.

Rockafeller played 29 games last season where he posted .237 batting percentage with two home runs and 17 RBI’s.

The playoffs start shortly after that, but this year is different for the Hawks’. The schedule was increased from 36 to 40 regular season games.

“It comes down to keeping your pitchers healthy,” said Tony Bloomfield.

he Hawks’ first game of the season is Jan. 28 at 1 p.m. against Shasta College at Conway field.