Dustin Timmins

Former Mean Moose leads RMAC

in victories



By LLOYD ENGEN

PUEBLO — The San Luis Valley has produced its share of standout high school athletes that have gone on to find noteworthy success in sports at the college level.

In recent years, that list of currently active college athletes includes such Alamosa High School standouts as State Champions Sonny and Cody Yohn wrestling for the University of Minnesota, Jason Espinoza making the 2-deep charts as a walk-on wide receiver at the University of Colorado, Clay Garcia waiting in the wings to be the quarterback at Colorado School of Mines, and Dustin Bolt making an immediate impact as a receiver and kicker at Adams State College.

Each of them made their various All State impacts on Alamosa Mean Moose State Championship teams in football and wrestling, respectively, as well as finding state successes in basketball and track & field.

And then there’s Katie Bussey earning the conference’s “Freshman Player of the Year” honor in basketball at Division I Montana State-Bozeman, and senior Brian Ford getting accepted into the Air Force Academy where he will play football for the Falcons.

How about Nicholas Lara winning seven National Championships on the track for Adams State, and Laura Knapp becoming an ASC National Champion?

Add to that list Centauri’s Janette McCarroll Cary and Amanda Gylling as multi-time All Americans in ASC track & field and cross country, Center’s Aucencio Martinez becoming an ASC National Champion in the middle distances, Center’s Daniel Maldonado turning into a powerful ASC thrower, Monte Vista champion wrestlers Omar Gonzales and Pablo Mascarenas making impacts at ASC and Colorado Mines, respectively, Alamosa’s Mike Gallegos and Josh Hensley excelling in ASC wrestling, and Centauri’s 2-time unbeaten State Champion Mitchell Polkowske qualifying for the NCAA-Division I Wrestling National Championships as a true freshman at Northern Colorado.

And then there is Alamosa’s Jesse Meis residing in lofty company with Dale Shull of Fort Lupton as the only two Colorado prep wrestlers to ever win a nationwide Senior Wrestling National Championship.

There are others, too, including Alamosa’s Kelcie Kruger and Crystal Loch excelling in basketball at Adams State, and Jon Atencio and Kale Mortensen about to make big impacts on ASC’s recently reestablished men’s golf team, coached by one of the best golfers in the state, former Alamosa State Champion Jay Osmon.

It’s a good-sized list of collegiate excellence in progress or about to begin, and there are others that could be added to the list, as well.

Which brings us to a young man who is excelling in one of the toughest collegiate sports of them all — top-notch NCAA-II baseball.

That young man is former Alamosa Mean Moose Dustin Timmins, and he is making his mark in a big way in the toughest position of all — pitching for the highly regarded CSU-Pueblo ThunderWolves who currently lead the RMAC Plains Division and are ranked No. 4 in the important Central Region.

The 6-foot-5, 205-lb. right-hander leads the RMAC in victories and last week was named the RMAC/Rawlings Pitcher of the Week after he hurled a 4-hit, 10-1 complete game victory over Metro State.

He also performed an encore last Saturday when he got the decision in a 9-3 win over Colorado Christian with a 40-mile-an-hour wind in his face — a wind so strong that it produced a home run barrage in the second game of the doubleheader that saw the T-Wolves win an incredible 32 to 23 shootout.

Timmins, who came of age as a pitcher in his senior year at Alamosa, intimidating batters with a high-powered fastball served off his 6-5 frame, went on to pitch at Salt Lake Community College before transferring to CSU-Pueblo.

He has the attention of all the RMAC teams now with his talent and the numerous statistics that only can be found in the game of baseball.

Timmins is 7-1 in his senior season, starting 10 games and pitching 53 and 1/3 innings with a 5.23 earned run average. The solid ThunderWolf pitching corps includes 6-foot-3 senior Mario Mattivi from Pueblo South and Trinidad State Junior College at 7-3, and 6-foot-4 senior Scott Harshman from Pueblo County and Otero Junior College at 7-2.

Timmins has been hit a little harder by left-handed batters, but he has been awfully tough on the right-handed hitters that he faces most of the time, holding them to a collective .242 batting average. He also has been tough with runners on base, holding opponents to a .265 batting average.

In the process, Timmins has recorded 32 strikeouts, given up 25 walks, and has proven to be extremely good at keeping base runners close to the bag, allowing just one stolen base in 3 attempts against him. He has given up just 3 home runs in 11 appearances on the mound.

CSU-Pueblo head coach Stan Sanchez regularly has looked to the tough South-Central League for quality players that first develop in junior college programs before switching to CSU-Pueblo. The T-Wolf roster includes senior catcher Tony Pechek of Pueblo South and Creighton, junior outfielder Brad Farbo of Pueblo South and Trinidad State, junior outfielder Zach Hoffman of Pueblo West and Trinidad State, junior first baseman Jerry Salazar of Pueblo Centennial and Otero JC, junior second baseman Mike Sanchez of Pueblo East, and freshman utility player Justin Greenhood of Pueblo County.

And, of course, Alamosa’s Dustin Timmins. The San Luis Valley probably hasn’t produced a successful collegiate baseball player like him since Alamosa’s Eric Garcia who went on to play professional ball in the Minor Leagues.

The ThunderWolves have 12 games left before the RMAC Tournament that will be played at the college’s Rawlings Field on May 6.

CSU-Pueblo plays four games at Regis starting today, then travels to Nebraska-Kearney for four games next weekend before closing out the regular season at home, hosting Colorado Mines in a four game series that opens with a “Pack the Park” night at 7:05 p.m. at legendary Runyon Field.

The Pack’s goal, of course, is to get to the NCAA-II College World Series in Sauget, Ill., May 22 — a road that first must travel through the RMAC Tournament and the NCAA-II Central Regional.

Dustin Timmins is counted on to continue to play a major role down the stretch for the T-Wolves, and his family and Alamosa friends will be watching because they’re very proud of this young man who has found his calling in the Grand Old Game — and wants to keep on playing.