10-day tryouts await Cavemen baseball players

CARLSBAD -- The Carlsbad baseball team will lay out its comprehensive 10-day tryout period for the 2016 season to prospective players and their parents at 7 p.m. Thursday in the CHS cafeteria.

Fifth-year coach Cody May said there will be two tryout periods so Carlsbad will have more time to evaluate the student-athletes thoroughly and not have them be rusty with just a three-day tryout period. May said that's why the tryouts will be formatted as a two-part deal.

May said evaluations will include speed, fitness and "knowledge of the game."

For the offense, May said Carlsbad will evaluate how they swing the bat, determine whether they're a power hitter or a contact hitter, if they're fast enough running on the bases to help the team and what type of jump they'd have moving from base to base.

For the defense, May said Carlsbad will find out what kind of arm strength student-athletes have if they're trying out as a pitcher. May also said the team will find out if they'd fit best at the corner infield, middle infield spots or in the outfield - depending on how quick-footed they are and how strong their throwing arms are.

The first tryouts will be Feb. 1 through 3. If the prospective student-athletes make that first cut, May said a second round of tryouts will take place on Feb. 4-10. May said the team will decide on final roster spots for C-team, junior varsity and varsity on Feb. 10.

"The way we have it set up, it gives us an opportunity to evaluate their total skill level," said May, also mentioning he expects 100 to 120 student-athletes will try out. "It gives each kid an opportunity to basically prove themselves and show us what they're capable of. We do defense one day and offense another. Now we can put them through our normal practices and our normal situations that we go through to see how they fit into our program."

May said it'll be the second straight year Carlsbad holds a two-part tryout session. He said sophomores, juniors and seniors will be in one group and the other group will be eighth graders and freshmen. Student-athletes can try out for any position they choose.

"It gives us an opportunity to see what kind of talent we've got," May said. "It's better for the kids and better for the coaching staff to figure out what's going to give us the best team this year."

For more information, contact May at 575-706-9863.

Current-Argus Sports Editor Matt Hollinshead may be reached at 575-628-5518.