The Sacramento State baseball team is heading into its second season under head coach Reggie Christiansen after a long road with many spots along the way.

Christiansen’s journey has taken him to the University of Kansas, where he was an assistant coach and to South Dakota State University as head coach where he took the Jackrabbits to a Division I Independent Tournament Championship in 2007.

Even though the Hornets finished last in the WAC with a record of 19-31 in his first season, Christiansen talked about what he learned from last year, the changes he has made and the improvement of his players.

What do you love about the game of baseball?

“This will be my 13th year coaching college baseball and you learn something new every day. Baseball allows you to learn a lot about yourself. It is an individual game set in a team setting. It’s our national pastime.”

When you were managing South Dakota State University from 2005-08 you saw the program make the transition from a Div. II school to a Div. I school. What did you learn from that change?

“It was really like starting over. You don’t get that opportunity that often, to start over, and we got that opportunity. It was fun to see the progress that we made.”

How can you relate success in the classroom to success on the baseball field?

“I think the guys who are organizers and who don’t procrastinate in the classroom are the guys who are going to put in the work necessary to make adjustments when things get tough on the baseball field. Things are going to go wrong and we are going to go through a stretch where we are going to lose a couple games in a row and guys are going to fail. But I think those who grind it out and are serious are going to be successful on the baseball field.”

What did you learn in your first season managing Sac State?

“I learned a lot. I learned that as a coach I have to do a better job communicating with my players day-in and day-out, especially those players who aren’t playing all the time. I also learned there are certain things that go on during a course of a season. It’s how you deal with them as a coach and we certainly found some ways to change some of those types of situations. I learned we have to get better in certain areas and I think we addressed that this fall. Number one is I think we have better players. Number two is we have better kids and I think we have changed the way we have coached.”

How long do you think it will take to get the program where you want it to be?

“I try not to put a timeline on it. I think our goal is to move forward every single day as a program and at some point we will get there.”

After Blake Miller graduated last spring, who led the team in home runs and RBIs last season, where is the offense going to come from?

“I think it’s going to come from a collective group of players. One through nine we are going to have a chance to score a lot of runs because we have very good players. We have infielder Trevor Paine coming back and catchers Derrick Chung and Brent Hottman. Those are all fifth-year guys with tons of experience and maturity. All three can hit and the addition of Clay Cederquist in the middle of the lineup is definitely going to help. It’s going to be a different lineup every day based upon the matchups and we are certainly headed in the right direction.”

Who is Clay Cederquist?

“Clay was at Fresno State as a freshman and didn’t play much so he went to Fresno City College and hit over .350 there. He can really hit and he is a very good defender. He was named preseason all-WAC at first base for a reason. A lot of people out there respect how he plays.”

What were the benefits of using a lot of young players last season?

“Now they are more prepared. I got a lot of heat for playing the young players especially with some of the older players but this was going to be a process and those younger players needed an opportunity.”

What Sac State freshmen should the WAC watch out for this year?

“I think Rhys Hoskins and Kyle Moses are certainly going to make an impact on the position player side and I think Brennan Leitao is going to be a great addition out of our bullpen.”

What are you going to do to improve on pitching having an ERA of 5.23 last season?

“We need to throw more strikes. We gave up way too many what we call free bases where we walk or hit too many batters. Our guys are better on the mound. Hunter Greenwood, who will be our Friday night pitcher, had an ERA over 10 last year and he has improved. Tanner Mendonca will pitch Saturdays and I think he is one of the best pitchers in our conference, so I think we are better. Our guys have better stuff and last year our defense wasn’t very good; that doesn’t show up in the ERA, and it really hurt us. Our infield this year is going to be as good as anyone in the conference.”

What goes through your head when you hear that the Hornets are picked to finish last again?

“Motivation. We have a lot of things to be motivated about, so it’s not to the point where our players are concerned about it. The bottom line is we probably should be picked to finish last because what we have done in the past and we just try to talk about moving forward. The past is the past and all we have is today and our focus is on today.”

Ryan Kuhn can be reached at @rskuhn