College of the Desert baseball has officially advanced to the California State Regional in the hope of winning it all. This is the second year in a row that the Road Runners have made it to the playoffs. Last year (2022) the Roadrunners had a record of 26-14 on the season with an 18-6 Conference record. The Roadrunners grabbed the top conference spot making it the first time in over 50 years were the Roadrunners would win their conference. The last time the Roadrunner won their conference was in 1971.

Last year the Roadrunners were ranked playoffs started with Long Beach Community College in the first round. Where COD would be hosting their first home playoff game. As for the first round of playoffs College of the Desert would take the series 2-1 against Long Beach as the games were played from May 6-7, 2022 Where they would advance to play in the super regions vs. Saddleback College from May 13 to 14, 2022. The Roadrunner’s season would end against Saddleback College with the series being 0-2.

The 2022 year was a year to remember for the roadrunners with last year’s 2022 season being an IEAC Champion (51 years), First every Super regionals Appearance, and 8-All conference honors.

This year (2023) the Roadrunners unfortunately did not win the conference title but still made the playoffs being ranked #21 in SoCal. The Roadrunners finished their 2023 season with a season record of 25-14 and a conference record of 13-11. This year they would play the #4 ranked Santa Ana college in the first round of SoCal Regional from May 5 to May 6, 2023. The Roadrunners would lose two very close games with the first game that took place on May 5 with a score of 1-2. On the second day of the SoCal Regionals on May 6th the roadrunners would lose another close game with a score of 4-5 going into the 11th inning.

The 2023 year was not as smooth sailing for the Roadrunners as it was last year for them. This year the Roadrunners would have 9 All-Conference players making that the most in their conference.

Along with another impressive season for the roadrunners came some huge milestones for some of the roadrunner players.

Will Owens this season would reach 100 hits in his two seasons here at College of the Desert.

Kenny Keller would reach a milestone of 150 innings pitched in his two seasons at College of the Desert

Kenny Schechter on reaching 100 strikeouts in his two seasons at College of the Desert.

The season for the Roadrunners was not easy for them. There were many ups and downs in the 2023 season. Head Coach Sam DiMeatteo said this about the season “Very proud that we didn’t fold up and give up on the season because it wasn’t easy… went a little smoother last year than this year.” DiMeatteo would also say this about his players leaving ” I am also excited for those guys to go move on and go on to bigger and better gains and get their backend of their journey going.”

The Desert Roadrunner baseball team would have 26 sophomores with the hopes of getting all 26 of those sophomores to another school with a scholarship. The coaching staff for the 2023 Desert Roadrunners would be

Head Coach- Same DiMeatteo

Assistant coaches- Casey Dill and Donlad Brais

Head pitching coach- Reid Santos

Assistant pitching coach- Andrew Garcia