Conversation w/St. Mary's Baseball Coach Eric Valenzuela

SMC Head Baseball Coach Eric Valenzuela

‘Coach V’ is back for another run with the Gaels baseball team. After taking over the program in 2013 and leading the team for 6 years, he took the job at Long Beach State in 2019 where hes been until getting another opportunity to come back to Moraga for 2023 and beyond.

Eric and I first met during his last season in his first stint at Saint Mary’s, when Ballplayers was opening up in 2019. The Gaels had a great season that year and Coach V had an opportunity to move to the Big West Conference - and my alma mater - and coach the ‘Dirtbags’. He immediately found success in Long Beach as they were nationally ranked multiple times during his tenure. I’ve stayed in touch with V over the past few years as an alumni, where LB hosts a great alumni weekend every year before the spring season (I was selected in the MLB draft by the Milwaukee Brewers out of Long Beach in 2005 and have attended the alumni weekend many times during my professional playing career and after I retired). So I was excited to hear that Coach V was headed back to Moraga when news broke this summer.

We finally had a chance to catch up and talk about how things are going and what he’s excited about as he gets started in this new era of Gaels baseball. The two biggest things are the support from administration at SMC and the improvements to the facilities. Both of those go hand in hand, but having an administration that fully supports a program makes a coaches life so much easier. With their indoor hitting facility getting finished a few years ago, and now a stadium renovation being completed, the newly named Ronald Gallagher Stadium is an exciting place to be. He also shared that a full artificial turf resurfacing project is on the books and they will be going full turf by the 2025 season.

Coach V is also excited about his coaching staff, where he has a great mix of coaches with experience as well as younger coaches that are eager to learn and establish themselves in the college ranks. Coach Meggs returns after being the head hitting coach last season. And Danny Costanza is back, after being on Coach V’s staff during his last stint at SMC, going with him to Long Beach, and returning to SMC again. And they have 3 additional coaches that are new this year but are well rounded to provide key support to the program.

As far as talent on the field, the team is bringing back a fair number of the starters from last year. But it’s a clean slate and everyone has to earn a spot. When taking over a program, it takes time to learn and develop players to determine where they fit in. Without the opportunity to have a full recruiting cycle, a ‘new’ head coach has to assess the players currently in the program, as well as the incoming players who committed before he took over. Coach V did have a chance to recruit a few transfers to come in this season and compete for a spot.

Ballplayers employed a few of the SMC players this past summer, as left handed pitchers Owen Cuffe and Derik Eaquinto coached our 14U and 16U summer teams. I recently did an interview with Owen about his development in high school and his recruiting process, which you can view on Instagram here.

I’m excited to see what’s in store for the Gaels in 2024 and wish Coach V, his staff and players, the best of luck this season!

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