By Jim Richards

SMCC baseball coach Todd Eastin isn't going to make like an NBA fan and scream "de-fense, de-fense" at his ballclub this year, but he's made it quite clear to all that the 2007 club's defense--or lack of it--was the main contributor to a subpar season that left the Cougars above only Eastern Arizona in the highly-competitive ACCAC Div.1 standings.
 
"We were terrible on defense last year." Eastin said of a club that went 27-29 overall and 14-24 in the ACCAC. "I think we blew 13 games last year when we had the lead in the eighth or ninth innings."
 
Eastin blamed his club's defense for many of the late collapses just as he's quick to praise the Cougars' defense during its current streak of 10 wins in 11 games (through Feb.27).
 
"We haven't played well yet, but the defense has kept us in every single game," Eastin said. "We've made one error or less in every game outside of one game where we had two errors."
 
Mesa CC broke the Cougars' nine-game winning streak Wednesday in a holdover game from Tuesday. But the Cougars responded with a 5-2 win over MCC Wednesday.
 
Adding to the defense considerably are former Arizona State University shortstop Brandon Macias and right-fielder and pitcher Adam Bailey. Eastin's heavy freshman everyday lineup includes former Brophy Prep standout Josh Garcia at third base, Tyler LeBrun at second along with Joey Petosa, and Jason Summers, the team's lone position-player holdover from last season at first. Chris Amrhein, Michael Delos, Garrett Hanselman head up the outfield.
 
Bailey is hitting .400, Summers, Garcia .353 and Macias .343 to lead the offense. 
 
Daniel Romero has a miniscule 0.79 ERA and a 3-1 record. Shane Dyer is 4-1 with a 3.77 ERA, Jordan Roualdes is 2-0 with a 0.90 and Jordan Whatcott is 1-0 with a 1.80. Bailey has three saves.