Nevada Bighorns planning for big 2009 season

Each season in its young history the Nevada Bighorns summer college baseball team has gained momentum.

And even though it's still November, the Bighorns are already planning for its best season ever in the summer of 2009. Entering its third season, the Bighorns will also enter a new league in 2009.

The Bighorns originally planned to enter into the Sierra Baseball League, which was to be a newly formed league featuring top summer college teams from Northern and Southern California and Oregon. Plans for that league fell through, but four teams that were to join that league, including the Bighorns, went on to form a league of their own.

The Bighorns will be joined by the Humboldt Crabs, the Medford River Dogs and the Redding Colt 45s in the West Coast League, which will be affiliated with the West Coast League that operates out of Portland.

It's fitting that those four teams will join to form a new league since those four teams played an entertaining series of games last summer in the West Coast Classic, which was hosted by the Humboldt Crabs in Arcada, Calif. The Crabs are considered to be the most prestigious summer college team on the West Coast.

The Bighorns, Humboldt, Medford and Redding will be joined by the Folsom Pioneers n the new league. While Bighorns coach Dennis Young said there's a chance more teams could join the league in 2009, it's likely that just the five teams will be in the league this summer. Young said it's planned for more teams to join the league in the future.

The plan calls for the league to have a 24-game season with each team playing each other six times. While home-and-home three game series will be held, the Bighorns will play all six games against the Crabs in Arcada while Medford will come to play the Bighorns for all six games in Carson City to cut down on travel.

The top two teams in the league after the regular season will play in a championship series.

Overall, the Bighorns will play a 50-game schedule that will feature some of the West Coast's other top summer college teams, including the Lodi Grapesox, the San Francisco Seagulls and the Yuba Pioneers. WNC will play eight games against Lodi, including a season-ending four-game series in Carson City July 30-August 2. The Bighorns will also continue their Wednesday night series with the Reno Astros semipro team.

The Bighorns roster will again be full of top college players, including four players from the University of Nevada. It's likely college graduates will be on the Bighorns roster as well.

Young said he hopes to open the season on May 23 against a team consisting of current U.S. Marines in what would be the the Bighorns' second Military Day. Last year the Bighorns donated $500 each to the military organizations, Carson City's Family Support Group and Reno's Veterans Home.

Young said other days are planned for Special Olympics, the Shriners and the American Cancer Society in which all proceeds would go to those organizations. In addition, the Bighorns will hold a fund-raising golf tournament for their program on June 28. The four-person scramble will be held at Dayton Valley Golf Club and the cost will be $125 per person.