LAS VEGAS — Seth Graham-Pippin threw 10 innings for the College of Southern Nevada in 2025. A year later, he was pitching against Big 12 teams at Utah, working as both a starter and reliever. Now he is coming back to Las Vegas to play for the coach who knew him before that jump.
Andrew Overland has taken a different route through Sacramento State and CSN. Tyler Avery started his college career at UNLV, left for CSN and Nicholls, and is returning to the Rebels. Those paths explain part of Nick Garritano’s first recruiting class. They also present different questions about what each pitcher can do next spring.
Garritano spent 16 seasons at CSN, where developing a player often meant sending him to a four-year program somewhere else. UNLV’s hiring announcement credited him with more than 190 such moves and 22 MLB Draft selections. Since the Rebels hired him in May, some of the players he coached and others who grew up in Southern Nevada have joined his new roster.
The return is particularly important on the mound. Four UNLV pitchers were drafted in July, including Carson Lane and Parker Dillhoff, who had combined for 28 starts. Garritano inherited a staff that finished 2026 with a 7.97 ERA. He needed innings, not just more names on a roster.
Graham-Pippin gives him a pitcher who has already been asked to do several jobs. The Desert Oasis graduate made 18 appearances at Utah in 2026, six of them starts, throwing 40⅔ innings with 35 strikeouts. He recorded a save at Fresno State, then moved into longer assignments as the season progressed.
Graham-Pippin allowed two runs in 4⅔ innings at BYU on May 2. Two weeks later against Baylor, a three-run homer cut into his lead in the fifth, but he struck out the next hitter to finish the inning. Garritano last saw him as a CSN pitcher with 10 innings of work. He is getting back someone who has since had to pitch through trouble against Big 12 hitters.
Overland‘s recent work has been shorter. He pitched 27 innings with a 4.00 ERA as a Sacramento State freshman before an injury limited his next season. Back at CSN in 2026, he struck out 15 and walked two in 14⅔ innings. The Cimarron-Memorial graduate has already worked with Garritano again, but his previous season is a small sample for a staff that needs starters capable of lasting deep into games.
Bryan Gidge, Garritano’s pitching coach, is familiar with that kind of development work. The two have coached together since before Garritano became CSN’s head coach in 2011; UNLV traces their working relationship to 2002. Gidge also pitched for the Rebels in 1998 and 1999. Familiarity with Graham-Pippin and Overland’s earlier work gives him a starting point, not a guarantee of what either will produce.
Avery redshirted at UNLV in 2023, made 21 starts across two seasons at CSN, then pitched 26 innings in 17 appearances at Nicholls. Seven appearances lasted more than one inning, including three hitless innings against nationally ranked Southern Miss and 3⅔ innings with five strikeouts against Omaha. That experience could help UNLV cover the innings after a short start.
The concern with Avery is control. He walked 20 batters while striking out 22 at Nicholls. UNLV can use a pitcher with experience working multiple innings, but it cannot afford to give opponents the same free baserunners that hurt its 2026 staff. Gidge’s work with Avery will have to begin there.
Not every local pitcher arrives with the same experience. Chase Sorlie, a Faith Lutheran graduate, made seven starts and threw 31 innings at Sacramento State with a 3.77 ERA. Henry Prindl, from Bishop Gorman, threw only 6⅔ innings in nine appearances at Creighton, striking out 10 but allowing eight earned runs. Aiden Pollock, another Bishop Gorman graduate, made 14 relief appearances at Reno, striking out 18 in 19⅓ innings. Their hometowns are similar; their recent workloads are not.
The position players offer a different part of Garritano’s recruiting record. Caden Kirby played for him at CSN in 2026, hitting .308 with a .421 on-base percentage and stealing 25 bases without being caught. The Green Valley graduate helped the Coyotes win the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference title. He now enters a middle-infield competition at UNLV with both college production and a coach who has already seen him play every day.
Koa Won, a Basic Academy graduate who helped his high school win a Nevada 5A Southern state title, played twice at Hawai‘i and received three at-bats. He joins a catching group that includes returning Rebel Gavin Taylor, who started 23 games behind the plate in 2026, and Easton Romero, whose previous stops included Salt Lake and Murray State. Won is returning to a city he knows, but still has a college job to win. Receiving and preparation will help determine that competition alongside the early batting results.
Other local connections extend beyond familiar coaches and ballfields. Freshman pitcher Shawn Mack attended Liberty High, and his mother, former UNLV softball player Lori Harrigan-Mack, won Olympic gold in 1996, 2000 and 2004. Such histories matter in a community where several generations have passed through UNLV. The next generation still has to earn its opportunities in a different sport and a different program.
Garritano has brought familiar coaches with him, too. Recruiting coordinator Dan Jaffe worked on CSN’s 2017 Junior College World Series staff before stops at Georgia Tech, Pacific and Arizona State. Trever Berg attended Basic, played at CSN and returned there to coach. The players coming home will find people who knew them before UNLV offered a place.
In a June interview with UNLV News Center’s Matt Jacob, Garritano acknowledged how much had changed since he began running CSN. “This is the transfer portal and the NIL world, and I’m not used to that,” he said. The relationships he has built in Las Vegas are a recruiting advantage, but he is learning the Division I roster business at the same time.
Garritano last coached Graham-Pippin when he threw 10 innings at CSN. After six starts at Utah, he returns to Southern Nevada with a chance to compete for a rotation spot.
