Pueblo West Cyclones baseball team on the 'hunt' for the playoffs in Class 5A

Having a young squad can sometimes spell a long season for a team.

In the case of the Pueblo West Cyclones baseball team, instead of having a down year, the young squad is knocking at the door of the 5A playoffs.

“Coming in, we knew we were going to be very young,” Head Coach Dan Sanchez said. “We only have three seniors and the majority of our team are sophomores and freshmen. We put together a tough schedule to get these guys battle-tested. We know the culture is right, we're working hard. We've had our ups and downs so far, but the culture is good, the kids are working hard and I like what's going on.”

This is the last year the Cyclones will be playing in the South-Central League. As the team is in Class 5A, they will be moving up to a different league following the season. With that, the Cyclones are hoping to chase down a share of the league title in their last season in the S-CL while still fighting for playoff positioning in Class 5A.

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“With the league, unfortunately, we are not worried about Pueblo schools anymore, we're just worried about trying to get us a good seed for the 5A playoffs,” Sanchez said. “This is our last year in this league, so we won't be playing in this league conference anymore. It would be nice to try to come back and find a way to compete and either tie for a league title or win a league title. We might need some help, but we're right there with everybody.”

The team is sitting in a good position as it enters the final week of the season. With an overall record of 11-10 and a league record of 6-3, the Cyclones are two games back of the league title.

“We are very young and I feel like we're doing all the right things,” Sanchez said. “So, I'm happy with what we're doing. I feel like we're doing all the right things.”

As far as the leaders of the team go, many of them are young as well, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t performing at a high level already.

“Our pitchers, Logan King and Jaiven Baca, pitching and hitting, they have helped out a ton and Baca also plays shortstop, so he's a very good athlete. Our center fielder had an injury right before the season and he's just barely coming back and probably not at full strength yet. So, we're hoping that we could get him going here in the last couple of weeks," Sanchez said.

"A spark plug, as far as just energy every day: JoJo Mendoza, is a kid that just does everything right every day and works his tail off and has a lot of upside to him. Also the freshman, Cameron Mares, has pitched well for us. He's got a bright future ahead of him as well.”

The team is focused on the future. They have played aggressively all season long and have bought into the concept of ‘hunting’.

“Our motto is just trying to get after everybody and just compete and don't worry about the outcome and just trust the process,” Sanchez said. “We've done that at times, but it's just youth and inconsistency. So, our motto was the hunt. There are times when we show signs of the hunt and there are times when we show our youth. But I love the challenge and I like our guys, so it's a good situation.”

The Cyclones are currently ranked No. 28 in the Class 5A rankings, which has them in the playoffs for now with a few games left in the season to try and improve that mark.

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Christopher Abdelmalek is a sports reporter for the Pueblo Chieftain and can be reached at cabdelmalek@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @chowebacca. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com 

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo West baseball team is young but ready for Colorado playoff push