Nicholas Cook is in his last year of completing his Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts degree at San Francisco State University. Cook is currently living the regular student life with the ambition to pursue sports broadcasting after college. What some people don’t know is how different this new lifestyle is for Cook.
After playing baseball for 17 consecutive years, Cook’s baseball career was prematurely cut short after the SFSU baseball program was cut in the Spring 2025 semester. Cook is the last remaining player from the team who is still attending SFSU.
Cook recalls a moment from last season, walking out from the Gators’ dugout to pinch hit for catcher Derek Laferriere, against California State University, San Bernardino, staring at a 0-1 pitch count.
After mistiming a fastball down the middle on a 3-1 count, Coyotes pitcher Riley Ricken and Cook battled to a full count. Cook hit the 3-2 pitch out of the ballpark. With his family in attendance, the Southern California native hit his first and only collegiate home run, one he’ll remember for the rest of his life.
“I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I hit that really good,’” Cook said. “The next thing I know, it clears the wall by 30 feet…the whole dugout went nuts, it was one of my coolest moments. That was kind of the whole process. Don’t strike out and end up hitting the homer.”
Cook’s former teammate, Daniel Murillo, remembers the moment his former roommate hit the home run.
“Seeing Cook hit a home run, you might have a better chance to make it to the moon,” Murillo joked. “The whole dugout was amazed, like we just saw history or something. He enjoyed it, though, you can tell he earned it.”
Former Gator baseball head coach Tony Schifano remembers being right beside Murillo when the ball hit the bat.
“When the ball left the bat, I just lost it,” Schifano said. “I honestly felt like I was a player again, like celebrating with the guys. I had to catch myself because, as a coach, you want to have your poise… I was genuinely [as] excited as his teammates were for him.”
Cook’s baseball journey started when he was a little kid, playing travel ball, where he would also meet his future high school and Gators teammate, Camden Andrews. Andrews’ first impression of Cook was that he was an annoying kid, but that same energy is now something he appreciates.
“I used to think it was super annoying when we were like 11, 12 years old,” Andrews said. “Like, ‘What is this guy doing? I’m just trying to play baseball.’ But as you get older and the higher levels you get to, you appreciate a guy who brings that kind of energy. You don’t meet guys who will still be screaming when we’re losing by 10…bring [that] energy to the field every single day.”
Baseball started to get serious for Cook when he got to middle school. Cook traveled to various states to play in major tournaments against the country’s toughest competition. This is where Cook asked himself if he was “in it for the long run or for the fun of it.”
Once Cook got to high school, it was all about the college recruitment process. But once Cook got to the end of his senior season, he hadn’t received any offers yet. A week after his teammate, Andrews, committed to the Gators, Schifano gave Cook a call for a visit up to the Bay.
On the visit, Cook remembers it being a rainy day when he was supposed to practice with the team. That practice never happened due to the rain. Cook recalled having a unique tryout in the walkway between Maloney Field and the SFSU tennis courts.
“Me and [Schifano] played catch for about ten minutes,” Cook said. “He threw me ground balls on the pavement. I was going right, left, throw back to him, everything like that. He’s like. ‘I like what I’ve seen so far. I’m going to give you an offer.”
Schifano recollects not having watched Cook in high school but remembers his high school coach raving about his skill set and the energy he brought. Even though it never showed in the box score, Cook’s impact during his time on the team was noticed by his former head coach.
”We took a chance on Nick, and it was one of the best decisions we made,” Schifano said. “I think a lot of the success we had on the field as a team, Nick was a huge part of it, maybe not based on starts, but based on the energy he brought… it’s invaluable. It’s something you can’t really put a price tag on.”
Cook committed to SFSU two weeks later, and his first memory as a Gator was being introduced to the rest of the team. He almost immediately recognized the brotherhood within the program.
“It was kind of the thing they implemented right away as soon as we got here,” Cook said. “So I definitely get to SF State and feel really welcomed with the team. I had met some of my best friends from this team.”
During his three seasons at SFSU, Cook garnered 28 hits, 25 runs, 19 RBIs and 10 stolen bases.
Cook took on the responsibility as the person who got everything organized for the team during his time with the Gators. What Cook first experienced for himself is something that he wanted others to experience as well: brotherhood.
“We had a lot of team-based events at our house, and he spearheaded a lot of those things,” Andrews said. “We would play poker as a team, we would have team bonding events at the house, a lot of those were his ideas. That was just something he did pretty well.”
When Murillo got to SFSU, he met Cook, who was already there for a year. Cook showed Murillo what the program had set in place and reminded him to have fun while playing baseball. Murillo acknowledged the traits that made Cook different from other people.
“Right when you meet him, you can tell he’s a very vocal person,” Murillo said. “He’s not shy, but I think that’s what makes him, him.”
Cook’s favorite memory with the team was when they got back from a nine-hour road trip on a Monday at 1 a.m. in the pouring rain. Schifano gave the team the option to tarp the field right then and there or come back and tarp later at 8 a.m. The team stayed up to tarp the field, a level of commitment they all took part in.
“It was the annoyance and the busy work we had to do to try and make everything nice is what I loved,” Cook said. “We were just like ‘Ah, this sucks.’ But we just did it. We also called ourselves the ‘Gritty Gators,’ and those were some of the moments that I loved most.”
After all the memories he and his brothers made during the first two seasons as Gators, Cook remembers hearing rumors that his team might be cut in the Fall 2024 semester. He never truly believed his team would be cut from the school entirely after reassurance from Schifano during the 2025 season.
But after the team was called in for a Zoom call with the coaching staff, Cook could tell something was off. The same week the sports budget cuts announcement was made, the team was told there wouldn’t be a baseball team starting next season.
Schifano and Cook were confident he would have been able to find a new home to continue playing baseball, but he decided to stay at SFSU because he is two semesters away from completing his BECA degree. A major whose courses differ from those offered anywhere else in the CSU system.
“I’m going to have to switch my whole major, I’m looking at one or two more years of school,” Cook said. “Do I go and try and venture out and play at a new school where I’m playing under a new coach and playing with a whole new team, you know? Who knows if I’m even going to be able to get a job at that school?”
While Cook had to say goodbye to some of his best friends, he continues to stay in touch with them and spends his extra time on his studies. The additional time in his schedule has allowed him to take new classes he couldn’t before, and now he can fully embrace his love of sports by leveraging his BECA background and his sporadic persona. Cook said that’s his new career goal: to talk about sports on the television screen.
“I love sports, I could talk about sports all day,” Cook said. “I’ll give you my opinions on everything, and it’s also knowledge of having played sports and playing at the higher level and things like that.”
Cook said that playing sports has taught him life lessons that will help him prepare for the real world, particularly the lesson of bouncing back.
“I remember being 0-13 in my last ABs,” Cook said. “You feel like the world is falling apart, then you could go 4-4 in your next game and feel like the man. The difference is what you teach yourself, the failure and how you’re going to pick yourself up is what you need to have in baseball and in life as well.”
While looking out at Maloney field with the sun setting, Cook said he won’t remember the games he and his brothers played — he’ll remember the small moments from practice. Days like the catchers cleaning home plate, the infielders picking up the weeds on the field or the pitchers doing wind sprints down the eastern wall.
“You just sit in the dugout, you’d be waiting for [Schifano] to come in and give his final words,” Cook said. “We’ve got to break and get out of here. It’s things like that I will miss. It was like it was a system. We had a great system, so it’s just sad to see it’s not in place anymore.”
