Cosumnes River College baseball and softball players have been forced to practice using non-traditional methods to avoid heavy rain storms over the past weeks.

Student-athletes who play outdoor sports this semester have faced adversity early on with the recent weather attacking California. Some student-athletes thought little of the weather impacting their practices, but others were thankful that only the preseason was coming up.

“It’s definitely major for us athletes, especially softball players, to get on the field and get those real-life game experiences, so it really impacts us,” said freshman softball catcher and third baseman Sophia Ortiz.

The softball team was able to get access to indoor facilities to focus on skill drills and strength in conditioning, said Head Softball Coach Kristy Schroeder.

“We’ve been focusing a lot on fundamentals,” Schroeder said. “Just kind of breaking things down and trying to get sharp with our skills because we really haven’t been able to do much strategy-wise.”

Schroeder has had experience in the past with players being unable to attend practice due to COVID-19 over the past couple of years.

“There’s a lot more important things in the world,” Schroeder said. “The safety and the health of everybody is number one, and then let’s play some softball.”

Schroeder also said the playing field was even due to other opposing teams having to adjust their practices as well because of the storms.

The baseball team shared similar experiences.

Sophomore catcher for the baseball team, Nick Solorzano shared that he believed the rain will not affect the team’s start of the season.

“I think coach Mico getting us into the gyms and on the turf will be enough to where we are prepared enough to go right in,” Solorzano said.

Solorzano’s teammate and sophomore pitcher, Isaiah Williams believed that the non-traditional training could have a positive effect on the team’s chemistry.

“I think it’ll definitely help out our chemistry because we’re now doing everything more as a team instead of normally just having pitchers doing their thing and then the rest of the team doing their own thing,” Williams said.