Former Aragon Hamilton leads UCSB club team to World Series

It’s been a fun trek for Hamilton. He graduated from high school in 2007 after playing football and baseball, receiving All-League honors as a senior. But upon leaving San Mateo, it wasn’t like the phones were ringing off the hook for his talents.

"There was some interest from Division II and Division III schools,” Hamilton said. "But, I just wanted to go to a good school and not worry about it too much.”

So Hamilton made the trip down to UC Santa Barbara to study psychology. But as is the case with most great athletes, wherever they go, their love for the sport they play comes along with them.

With no real desires to play for the Division I team at UCSB, a chance encounter led Hamilton to discover the school club baseball team which had started up a year before he reached campus. Put together and run by lovers of the game who just can’t seem to let go of their passion for the diamond, the Gauchos became a part of Hamilton’s life at school. And today, he stands at the doorstep of ending his career at the top.

Four years have passed since Hamilton joined the team, which he now manages, and he has them in their first ever trip to the National Club Baseball Association World Series. The tournament, held in Columbus, Ga., begins on May 27.

"We’ve made regionals every year,” Hamilton said, "and this year we actually started off with a really strong starting squad. Last year, we lost to University of Arizona in the final game of regionals; we just ran out of pitching. Our big problem is getting our name out there. And so, as the season got going, we got noticed, people started hearing about us and we got a couple of new pitchers come in so we had a strong pitching rotation at the beginning of the season. We pretty much knew from seeing other teams that we would have a pretty good team. And our goal from the beginning has been to win it all. I was definitely confident we could accomplish that.”

Not only are they the number one seed going into the series, but Hamilton and his teammates have done this without the formal backing of the university. Players on the team must pay their way through the season. Hamilton said the fee is about $570 which goes toward uniforms, equipment, field usage and hiring umpires, among other things. Being an official part of the recreational sports system would be nice.

"The biggest thing is that they would help get our name out there and make sure the student body knows we exist,” Hamilton said, "because there is definitely a lot of talented players out there that don’t even know we’re here.”

A previous attempt at being officially chartered as a recreation team on campus failed. Thus, with the biggest set of games looming, Hamilton and the Gauchos face the dubious task of funding their own way to Georgia if they want to compete for the national title.

Hamilton calculates that his team will need to raise $5,000 to make a trip down to the series. With the school system in financial crisis, pleads to the university for assistance have netted the Gauchos a check for $400. So, on top of studying for finals (Hamilton graduates in two weeks from UCSB) and playing baseball, the Gauchos have been fund-raisers. The team has managed to collect $3,500 through donations, chocolate chip cookie sales, Panda Express Days on campus and selling bottled water outside of campus concerts.

Still, time is running out for Hamilton and his squad. Their first game is scheduled for next Friday against the University of Michigan, the eighth seed in the tournament.

"It’s getting down to crunch time,” Hamilton said. "We play mostly for fun,” he said.

But a World Series title to go along with his degree wouldn’t be a bad way to end his time as a Gaucho.

There are a couple of places you can go if you want to help Hamilton and the Gauchos raise the rest of funds to reach their goal. Visit their Facebook page by searching for "UCSB Club Baseball 2010-2011 or over to www.indiegogo.com where you’ll be able to donate directly to the team.