It's spring again, and that means baseball is back for the American River College men. Coming off a disappointing 2006 campaign in which the Beavers started out hot 14-5 ranked No. 4 in the Nor Cal Poll, they slid with the rain through the rest of the season, losing 9 one-run games and finished a substandard 16-26.

After the major let down of '06, the American River College men's baseball team is looking forward to a '07 season in which they are returning 10 players from last season's squad, including three, 4-year university signees.  

"We're looking forward to the upcoming season," said Coach Jumelet. "It should be fun.    

"We've got a hard working and competitive group."

Coach Doug Jumelet is in his 4 th season as the Beavers Head Coach (63W-56L) out of UC Riverside, has high expectations for this year's team stating that good pitching, hitting, team speed, and the best defense he's ever coached will indeed contribute to the Beavers competing for a league championship.

Beavers lost from 2006 include:

2nd team all-conference players C Joe Finn (Chico State) and 3B Chris Rinaudo (Cumberland U. Tenn.) a 2005 All-American.   Others include RHP Bradd Simmons (Cal Baptist) and RHP Jake Hower, the Beavers all-time career saves leader with 13 (Fresno St).    

2007 players to watch:

RHP/LF 11 Steve Rinaudo: Drafted in the 29 th round by the Kansas City Royals and 1 st team all-conference player in 2006 batted a team leading .353 with 54 hits and struck out only 13 times in 153 at bats. He also had two HR's, 24 RBI's and a .440 OBP% last season.   As a pitcher he started 10 games and had an ERA of 2.08 with 47 strikeouts. Rinaudo looks to have a big season in his sophomore debut and says he's back to try and lead his team to a championship.  

CF 1 Ryan (Rhino) Thornton:   Drafted in the 17 th round by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2006, Thornton decided to forgo the pros in favor of a college career.   He will play one more season at ARC and signed a national letter of intent to

play for UNLV next spring.     

Rhino, had a .331 batting average with 50 hits and a team leading 10 stolen bases. He says that he's added switch-hitting to his 2007 repertoire, so look for him to be swinging from both sides of the plate this year.

LHP 55 Jose Ramirez:   Signed with Cal State University Sacramento for next season, this wicked lefty is also back for the Beavers in 07.   Ramirez pitched in 12 games last season starting 11 of those and struck out 64 batters in 61.33 innings.   He finished the season 4-4-0 with a 3.23 ERA.   

RHP 40 Robert Butler:   Headed to South Dakota State, Butler will try and top his 2006 performance in which he pitched in 17 games with an ERA of 2.92 and had 25 strikeouts.

Others to watch:

The Beavers hope to get production from Sophomores Anthony Savage, Chris Kidd, and Jason Lamascola; as well as Freshmen R.J. Gundolff (Oak Ridge), Matt Miraldi (Bear River), Mike Mckinney (Del Oro) and Ian Cook (Ponderosa).