Coyotes still think like league leaders

Tuesday, April 18, 2006 | 9:09 a.m.

Tim Chambers went into last weekend hoping his Community College of Southern Nevada baseball team would split a four-game series at Dixie State and that Salt Lake would sweep four games from Colorado Northwestern.

All of that happened, so the Coyotes (7-41 overall, 5-27 and seventh in the Scenic West Athletic Conference) edged closer to sixth-place Colorado (11-31, 6-20). The top six teams advance to the league playoffs.

Having 27 victories overturned in a random National Junior College Athletic Association audit, for using two players who were deemed ineligible, put CCSN in a deep hole.

"On the field, we'd be in first place by a game and a half," said Chambers, the Coyotes' coach. "That's what we keep telling them. We have 33, then 34 (victories). They know how many games they've won."

CCSN has eight regular-season games remaining, four this weekend at Salt Lake (24-15, 17-10) and four the following weekend against Colorado in Rangely, Colo.

Colorado plays host to Western Nevada (25-15, 19-9) this weekend and finishes in two weeks at home against Eastern Utah (16-22, 10-18).

"We're staying positive," Chambers said. "(The Coyotes) are playing their best baseball of the year right now. They're playing like they're in first place. The way they're attacking it, we have to win if we're going to stay in first.

"We know, in our hearts, how many games we've won."

Byrd man of CCSN

Chambers said Art Byrd, CCSN's vice president and Chambers' boss, has been supportive of him and the program in the wake of the forfeit ruling.

Two Coyotes started three classes, which began late, after the beginning of the semester. Dixie coach Mike Littlewood said that isn't uncommon in junior college. Byrd drafted an appeal that was turned down by the NJCAA.

"He said (after that appeal denial), 'Too bad. You guys go out and try to win games,' " Chambers said. "Kids don't talk about it. We'll make the playoffs, then we'll win the (darn) thing. That's what's going to happen."

The seventh-year coach guided CCSN to an NJCAA World Series championship in Grand Junction, Colo., in 2003.

"(The administration) is behind us," Chambers said. "They know I do everything by the book. If I had a track record of having kids in trouble or poor students or bad guys, then I could see them (saying), 'Hey, you have to get better kids.' But we don't have that track record."

The wheels on the bus ...

Because of a quirky schedule and a flop of a home-and-away series, the Coyotes are on the road this weekend for a fifth consecutive week.

They finish the regular season next weekend at Colorado Northwestern, an 11-hour bus ride.

CCSN has a bye in two weeks, when the other six SWAC teams finish. Chambers said the timing of that bye week is good.

"We'll get a week of rest before the playoffs. That's a bonus," he said.

Infield flies

Jorge Esquivel (Cimarron-Memorial High School) and Cameron Johnson (Las Vegas High School) also homered against Dixie. CCSN had four homers going into that series.

"He's turned the corner as a baseball player," Chambers said.