The end of the semester is near and spring sports at Cosumnes River College are ending their respective seasons.

Men’s baseball is returning to the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season under the helm of Head Coach Tony Bloomfield and his staff. Baseball posted a winning record with 24 wins and 15 defeats.

The Hawks finished fourth in the competitive Big 8 Conference with a 15-9 league record with winning their final four conference games.

“We’ve been playing pretty good, so I think we have a really good chance to get in and move further in the playoffs,” Tony Bloomfield said.

Tony Bloomfield stated at the beginning of the season that keeping the pitchers healthy was a key point. Fourteen players took the mound for the Hawks this season. The pitching staff averaged a 3.75 earned run average, which was about one run better than their opponents’ average this season.

“We’ve got a lot of young pitching that come in after the main guy, so if they get the job done, then we’ll be good,” said sophomore shortstop Brett Bloomfield.

The staff was led by sophomore pitcher Thomas Galart, who had a record of 5-4 and recorded the team leading five saves. Galart posted an ERA of 1.93 in 56 innings.

While pitching was strong, Bloomfield said that his team needs to improve on bringing guys around to score.

“I think we need to do a better job hitting with guys in the scoring position,” said Tony Bloomfield

Baseball starts the first round of of the California Community College Athletic Association playoffs this weekend at Ohlone College in a best-of-three series beginning Friday at 2 p.m. The second game starts at 11 a.m. with the third game following right after if necessary.

The CRC women’s softball team is heading back to the CCCAA playoffs for the third year in a row. The Hawks softball also posted their third consecutive 30 win season and ended the conference schedule on an eight game win-streak.

“I really think we’ve been doing a nice job up to now,” said Head Coach Kristy Schroeder.

Schroeder’s team outscored their opponents by 163 runs and posted a .362 batting average as a team.

Softball’s leading hitter was sophomore pitcher/first baseman Chelsea Martinez, who posted a team lead of a .424 batting average shared with freshman second baseman and shortstop Miranda Rodriguez. Martinez led the team with 62 runs batted in and 11 home runs.

“I feel really confident. A lot of things are coming together,” Rodriguez said. “Things are coming together smoothly, so knowing that we get to continue to play is a good feeling.”

The pitching staff of the softball team is a short list, using only three pitchers for the entire season. The leader of the pitching staff was freshman pitcher and first baseman Brittany Baroni. Baroni pitched 119.1 innings and led the team with 16 wins, 67 strikeouts and a 2.82 era.

Softball grabbed the number three seed in the Northern California part of the CCCAA playoffs and will host Butte College at home in a best-of-three series.

“We’ve got to perform, but I’m looking forward to postseason, and I’m really proud of the team for finishing the season the way that they did,” Schroeder said.

Sophomore second baseman Veronica Smith said she is confident in the team’s strength and effort.

“I feel like we have a strong team,” said Smith.”We have a lot that we are going to build off of. We have a strong unit, a strong start, and I think that we’re going to do pretty good. We’re going to give it our all, and I know these girls are going to give it 110 percent, and that’s what I plan to do too.”

The first game starts Friday at 2 p.m. and the second game is Saturday at 12 p.m..

The Hawks previously beat Butte in a two-game series sweep in early March.

Most of the players on the men’s and women’s tennis team qualified to compete in last weekend’s state tournament at Ojai Country Club in Ventura, California.

Tennis Head Coach Brandon Ellis said this season had the most athletes he has had qualify for the state tournament in the last 10 years.

Many professional tennis players previously played in the Ojai tournament and it’s a great experience to expose the players to, Ellis said. The state tournament went well for the CRC tennis team as they had a few doubles teams and single players qualify.

Sophomore Taylor Galya made it to the round of 16 and competed as one of the top 16 community college women’s singles in the state, Ellis said.

Galya said that it was a “really great honor to play there” and said the tournament was a place of “really great tennis and competition.”

Despite dealing with an injury, Galya said it was great to be able to compete.

“I was playing injured in the tournament, so I’m glad I made it that far and played my game,” Galya said.

After the competition, the players watched the Pac-12 championships, which Ellis said showed a quality of play that is good to expose to the players.

Ellis noted that the greatest improvement for the team this season has been in doubles.

“The team focused a lot on doubles this season,” Ellis said. “Doubles requires a lot of strategy and chemistry.”

The end of the season also marks the end of Ellis’s time as tennis coach, as this will be his last season coaching the men and women’s CRC tennis teams.

“The thing I enjoy the most as a coach is the development of the players,” Ellis said.

The CRC Swim team concluded it’s third season of competition on April 22 at the San Joaquin Delta College meet.

The team started out with nine swimmers on the roster, but only had three eligible swimmers to compete in the last meet.

Although they had a small roster, Abrams mentioned the support system the girls had for one another.

“There was a lot of focus on teamwork,” Abrams said. “The team culture this year is what i would like to carry on to next year.”

She added that the support of the girls for one another was outstanding by always cheering the other on and always being at the end of the pool waiting for one to finish.

Abrams is looking for people to join the swim team next year and expand the roster.

Abrams stated that if you are interested about joining the swim team for next season, to contact her via email at [email protected].