The “drink from the firehose,” as Jason Dietrich described his first year at the wheel of the Ferrari of Cal State Fullerton’s athletic department was still fresh in his mouth last fall when he spoke to the survivors and newcomers about what awaited them in Year Two of the Great Baseball Overhaul.
To understand Dietrich’s audience, it’s necessary to parse who some of the 17 survivors and 22 newcomers to the Cal State Fullerton baseball team were and what they represented in the big picture. Because that picture would eventually frame the season and what transpired.
Let’s start with the survivors, which included the likes of starting pitchers Tyler Stultz and Fynn Chester, outfielder Nate Nankil, utilityman Caden Connor, third baseman Zach Lew, catcher Cole Urman and reliever Evan Yates. They were among the ones who survived Dietrich’s postseason purge of the CSUF baseball program last summer.
That purge came in the wake of a 22-33 overall record and a 14-16, seventh-place Big West finish, when Dietrich and his staff whittled the roster from 43 in the fall of 2021 to 20 by the end of the 2022 season. The purge was so all-consuming that Dietrich said at the end of last season some of the 20 players who got to the end of that season wouldn’t be back.
The newcomers, which included transfer arrivals like closer Jojo Ingrassia, infielder Maddox Latta and outfielder/pitcher Moises Guzman, were coming into a program in flux. The Ferrari was on blocks and they were expected to help the survivors get it out of the garage. Sooner, rather than later.
“As a coaching staff, we have to do our best to paint a picture,” Dietrich said. “We worked hard all fall to create the picture of what it meant to be a Cal State Fullerton baseball player. We went over the beliefs and the culture and talked about the direction of the program and where we’re at. It took a lot of trust on both parties, but at the end, they bought into what we were striving for. At the…
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