Ron Scott notches 1,000th career win at Fresno City College

By Anthony Galaviz, Fresno Bee (agalaviz@fresnobee.com)

FRESNO, Calif. - Fresno City College baseball coach Ron Scott joined elite company Tuesday, notching his 1,000th career win when his Rams defeated Cerro Coso 5-2 in Ridgecrest.

Scott is the second to reach the milestone in California junior college history behind Santa Ana's Don Sneddon who finished with 1,072 wins.

“It means a lot because it’s a big number,” Scott said. “I’m glad to be a part of it at Fresno City College. There’s no other place I would rather be than here, but I will say this: I’m sad that we hit the 1,000 mark because that means I’m getting close to the end of my career.."

Scott is in his 30th season since taking over the program from another legendary coach, Len Bourdet. Scott got his first JC win Feb. 3, 1989, 10-3 over Cabrillo.

Fresno City will celebrate Scott's achievement in a ceremony at 5:45 p.m. Thursday at Euless Park before the Rams host Cerro Coso.

“I’ve had a blast and I'm still having a blast,” said Scott, whose lineups have featured many players who went on to play at four-year schools and five who made it to the Major Leagues: Bill Simas, Ted Lillly, Jaime Cerda, Marcus Walden and Sean Halton.

The Rams have won one state championship under Scott, in 1992 when they went 8-0 in the playoffs to cap a 45-7 season.

Coaching along the way with Scott for 30 years is his right-hand man Eric Solberg. "We’ve been a tandem for so long and that doesn’t happen very often," Scott said.

He added that it would mean more if his team finished atop the Central Valley Conference by the end of the week.

“It’s sinking in now because everyone is talking about it and people (were) calling me 999,” he said. “I’m excited and also excited winning because we’re tied for first and want to finish the season in first place and be champions. It will be a number (1,000) that keeps us in first place.”