Baseball dept. on past, present and future success

A number of players from Bellevue College have been drafted by Major League baseball teams, some making it to the big show and one player even makingittotheMLBAll- Star game. Prospective players are beginning to see that the Bellevue College baseball program is a way to get to the MLB. Bellevue College is also the only team in the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges to be nationally ranked.
Coach Mark Yoshino is in the sixteenth year as the head coach and has coached his team to a number of NWAACC baseball titles. He recognizes how players improve and learn the game and works his program around improving his players. “The time commitment coaches put in to develop them covers all aspects, especially in the areas of individual skill enhancement and strength and conditioning improvement” said Yoshino. “The approach is individualized, which takes more time but yields greater return.” He has developed a program to focus on the potential of each player.
Athletes recognize that BC is a strong baseball school and its rich history of success gives a good vibe to potential players. Freshman relief pitcher Corbin Powers decided tocometoBCbecauseof how the coaches could help him improve as a player. “One of the reasons I chose Bellevue College to play baseball at is because of the coaching staff and to become a better baseball player. Being a left-handed pitcher,” he says. “I had an opportunity to work with a left-handed pitching coach, which benefits me in a way where I learn faster and we can relate a lot more.” A strong coaching staff and an opportunity to improve is what lured him to play ball for BC, Powers says.
Another athlete that was drawn to the BC program is sophomore outfielder Aaron Stroosma. Stroosma joined the team because of the program’s reputation: “Bellevue has the reputation as one of the premier baseball junior colleges on the west coast. Players choose Bellevue because of the track record the program has for moving players to the next level. The opportunity here is such that myself and some of my teammates turned down Division I scholarship opportunities in order to be a part of the baseball program here.” Stroosma is second on the team in home runs with three on the season and also is third on the team in runs batted in with 13.
Stroosma loves that he was able to join this team and what it meant for him. “I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to be at BC working with a dedicated coaching staff, committed to making players better,” he says. Powers also wanted to be a part because of how everybody else loved the program: “Talking to past players, they said they couldn’t have been more happy with the coaching staff and how they were transformed into better baseball players, and that made me lean towards Bellevue even more.”