While Sacramento State baseball is currently leading the Western Athletic Conference, there is a club baseball team that is slowly establishing themselves as one of the more diverse clubs on campus.

Founded by Dennis Chen, who took on the role as president, the Sac State baseball club just concluded its first ever year in the National Club Baseball Association.

Chen, who came to Sac State from Taiwan five years ago, was looking for a place to fit in and with his baseball background, he decided to start the club. It was not easy for Chen as he was faced with several problems in the startup process.

Chen had a hard time finding members to join, and when he did, some of them were faced with ineligibility rules. The club started with 19 members, but was whittled down to just 12.

“In the beginning, I was just trying to recruit players so I didn’t really think that much,” Chen said. “If he can play, then he’s in. When I realized, it was too late.”

The team finished its inaugural season at 4-16, but it was not because of a lack of talent.

A key member to the baseball club is Adam Austin, the current safety officer and next year’s president. Austin is a registered emergency medical technician and was a perfect fit as safety officer of the club.

With such a small team, Austin, as well as many members in the club, would become utility players. Secretary of the club, Leonardo Zermeño compared it to being a kangaroo just hopping from position to position.

During the season, the club had trouble finding a regular practice field and practice time. They played their games at El Camino High School, but would practice at different fields almost weekly. Austin said that the talent was there, but the consistency was not.

“Our record doesn’t really display the level of baseball we had the potential to play,” Austin said. “We had a lot of trouble getting a practice field and practice time.”

The club was placed in the Southern Pacific-North Conference and faced the likes of UC Davis, Sonoma State and UC Berkeley among others. One of the shining moments for the team was taking down powerhouse Sonoma.

“Our first legitimate win was against Sonoma, they were undefeated and No. 1 in our division,” Austin said. “We were the first team to beat them.”

Within the roster, there are people from several nationalities; and Austin would describe it as having at least one person from each continent. Chen said that as they would travel to other places and notice that the vast majority of teams were not very diverse in their rosters.“Our club is one of the most diverse clubs on campus, we have so many different races and ethnicities on our team,” Chen said.

The club members want the baseball club to become known and gain a following at Sac State.

“I want to see this club grow,” Zermeño said. “I want to have people on campus know what the club is and what it’s done and how good they’ve become.”

Chen wants to see how long the club can be sustained as well as seeing that the club continues to give back to the community like it has by helping out at local youth baseball camps. Chen, who is graduating this semester and will not be able to be president next year, will be passing the reigns to Austin.

Austin has a simple message for anyone interested in playing for the club next year.

“We definitely want committed people, that’s the main thing. We need guys with good attitudes and we’re gonna be funded by the school next year and getting new uniforms,” Austin said. “It’s gonna be a whole different ballgame.”