College Baseball:

To say the Andy Smith era at Citrus College got off to a solid start would be an understatement.

The 34-year-old Owls’ skipper flipped the script in his first season at the Glendora school.

Citrus went from 13-26 in 2025 to 33-13 in one year.

The 33 victories was the program’s most since 2003.

And they were just two wins from matching the 1975 mark of 35 by Hall of Fame coach Skip Claprood, his staff and their players.

After finishing one-game back of Glendale in the Western State Conference South Division standings, the Owls earned a 3C2A home So Cal Regional series with Pasadena City and Cypress College.

Citrus defeated PCC, 14-5, on May 1st, but they dropped an 8-7 to decision to Cypress the next day.

Facing elimination last Sunday, the Owls defeated the Chargers, 12-3 and 6-2, to earn a spot at the Santa Ana Super Regional.

Unfortunately for the boys from Glendora, the Dons claimed victories of 7-6 and 6-2 to end a phenomenal first season for the new-look Owls.

As mentioned in the headline, Citrus won 20 more games in 2026.

Aside from the school providing a coaching facelift, the Owls success derived from a roster full of athletes who bought into the Smith Doctrine.

Their student-athletes uniformly put ‘we’ in front of ‘I,’ and after busting their asses throughout the 2025 preseason and the regular season, only five of the 87 CCCAA state programs had more wins in 2026 than Citrus.

In the previous 11 years, the Owls only had four winning seasons, and their highwater mark was 22 wins in 2017 and 2018.

The biggest improvements from 2025 to 2026 included scoring 149 more runs, as well as totaling more hits (131) doubles (16), triples (7), and they more than tripled their power numbers from 16 home runs to 61.

Citrus upped its team batting average 32 points, and their slugging percentage went from .420 to .535 this year.

Perhaps the most impactful stat differential was its 4.62 team ERA that dropped from 8.21 in 2025.

The Owls pitching staff walked 44 less and struck out 152 more batters.

Citrus’ pitching leaders included Tim Hudson (8-1, 3.59 ERA & 59 strikeouts in 57 2/3 IP), Garrett Patterson (5-1, 1.85 ERA & 21 strikeouts in 39 IP), Conner Luetto (5-2, 4.08 ERA & 87 strikeouts in 79 1/3 IP), Michael Moses (4-3, 5.37 ERA & 41 strikeouts in 55 1/3 IP), Sean York (2-0, 1 save, 5.19 ERA & 44 strikeouts in 34 2/3 IP), Evan Ellis (3-1, 7.65 ERA & 23 strikeouts in 20 IP), Ryan Harrison (3-1, 4.55 ERA & 37 strikeouts in 29 2/3 IP) and Gabe Buranasiri (1-1, team-best five saves, 1.57 ERA & 21 strikeouts in 23 IP).

The batting heroes includes a long list of Owls.

Cam Casado (.469, 69 hits, 42 runs, 60 RBIs, 15 doubles & 14 home runs), Derek Almeda (.376, 74 hits, 55 runs, 40 RBIs, 17 doubles, two triples & four home runs), Jordan Daniels (.369, 56 hits, 48 runs, 48 RBIs, 14 doubles & 10 home runs), Cole West (.349, 51 hits, 49 runs, 23 RBIs, 14 doubles, two triples & five home runs), Garrett Patterson (.392, 40 hits, 19 runs, 24 RBIs, 10 doubles, two triples & two home runs), Julian Hines (.300, 36 hits, 23 runs, 14 RBIs, five doubles & one triple), Nick Velazquez (.304, 41 hits, 45 runs, 26 RBIs, nine doubles, two triples & nine RBIs), Dominic Torrez (.311, 38 hits, 25 runs, 13 RBIs, eight doubles, one triple & one home run), Dustin Yela (.359, 23 hits, 14 runs, 16 RBIs, two doubles, one triple & one home run), Jackson Gray (.354, 40 hits, 21 runs, 27 RBIs, four doubles & three home runs) and Joe Gilkeson (.270, 24 hits, 20 runs, 20 RBIs, seven doubles & five home runs).

Perhaps no one could have predicted that Citrus would win at a 72-percent clip, which was nearly 40 points higher than a year ago.

However, the seeds to going about it the right away were planted early on.

One of the first things Smith did after being hired was to reach out to the program’s all-time wins leader, Skip Claprood.

Claprood’s 772 wins in 30 seasons was third most in the state of California at the time of his retirement in 2002.

Unfortunately, Claprood had felt somewhat distant from the program.

But an early-morning coffee meet up with the new Owls “skipper” has spawned a relationship that both men value greatly.

Smith feels fortunate to have the opportunity to pick the brain of a baseball genius and a great man.

He considers Claprood both a mentor and friend.

Claprood visited practice early on to give one of his famous speeches, and the players and coaches soaked up Skip’s knowledge and experience.

After all, during his tenure at Citrus, Claprood saw 150 of his players get drafted, including 14 that went on to play in the MLB.

He also sent scores of players on to Division 1 programs.

Smith, in just his fifth year as a head baseball coach at Chaffey and Citrus has won 142 games and has a 67-percent success rate.

Listening to his players from Chaffey and Citrus talk about their leader, the most common accolades are how much he cares about the young men on and off the field.

He works tirelessly to get his athletes to the next level and they know he’s got their best interest at heart.

The atmosphere at Chaffey and Citrus under his leadership have been all about family, holding each other accountable and becoming a better player and person tomorrow than you were today.

In this writer’s opinion, the best part of the Smith hire and the success that he’s enjoyed is that SGV and IE area elite athletes now desire to play at Citrus for the first time in decades.

PCC’s Pat McGee and Mt. SAC’s John Knott have built elite programs that area players have benefited from greatly, and to add another coach and program to that list could only be seen as a great thing for local high school and bounceback college athletes.

Perhaps Skip Claprood said it best: “Citrus hired the right man to lead this program into the future.”

Citrus Team Stat Comparison in 2025 & 2026:
Records: 13-26 overall & 8-13 (2025); 33-13 & 17-4 (2026)
Runs: 263 (2025); 412 (2026)
Hits: 414 (2025); 545 (2026)
Doubles: 99 (2025); 115 (2026)
Triples: 8 (2025); 15 (2026)
Home Runs: 16 (2025); 61 (2026)
RBIs: 229 (2025); 364 (2026)
Team Batting Average: .302 (2025); .334 (2026)
On-Base Percentage: .402 (2025); .429 (2026)
Slugging Percentage: .420 (2025); .535 (2026)
Team ERA: 8.21 (2025); 4.62 (2026)
Batting Average Against: .329 (2025); .267 (2026)
Walks/Strikeouts: 206/239 (2025); 162/391 (2026)

Citrus’ Recent Records:
2026: 33-13 overall, 17-4 in WSC
2025: 13-26, 8-13
2024: 20-20, 11-10
2023: 11-28, 7-14
2022: 16-24, 9-12
2021: No Season (COVID)
2020: 18-8, 4-0 (Partial COVID Season)
2019: 19-20-1, 13-7)
2018: 22-18, 11-9
2017: 22-17-1, 12-8)
2016: 14-21-1, 7-14)
2015: 20-15-1, 13-8)

2026 State Win Leaders of the 86 3C2A Programs:
Fresno City (40-5)
Palomar (39-5)
Santa Ana (38-6-1)
Ohlone (37-7)
Allan Hancock (34-12)
El Camino (33-9)
Modesto (33-12)
Citrus (33-13)
Feather River (33-13)
Desert (32-8)
Santa Rosa (32-13)
West Valley (32-13-1)
Skyline (31-12)
Folsom Lake (31-14)
Glendale (30-12-1)

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Andy Smith Career Coaching Records:
2026 at Citrus: 33-13, 17-4 in Western State Conference South Division
2025 at Chaffey: 34-11-1 overall, 20-4 in Inland Empire Athletic Conference:
2024 at Chaffey: 27-15, 21-3
2023 at Chaffey: 28-14, 21-3
2022 at Chaffey: 21-19, 15-9
2021 at Chaffey: COVID
Totals: 143-72-1 overall & 94-23 in conference