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Try quizzing Dennis Machado on the state capital of California and he'll probably be capable of answering with ease. The same goes for Alaska.

But that's only because he's spent his entire life residing between the two.

Try Alabama, or Arkansas, or Minnesota.

"I still don't know," the Peninsula Oilers pitching coach said with a laugh when asked if he still remembered any.

He must have been able to recite a few fresh out of school in 1994, when less than a month after graduating from Kenai Central High School, Machado made his Oilers' debut in fine fashion.

"I remember how nervous I was in the bullpen. I was throwing 45-foot fastballs and was all over the place," he recalled. "The pitching coach was trying to talk to me about state capitals or anything to get my head off of what I was doing.

"He was trying to ask me, 'What's the state capital of this? What's the state capital of that?'"

Montgomery, Little Rock, Minneapolis, and before he knew it, a complete-game, five-hit shutout.

Machado, all of 18 years old, took the hill in the final game of a three-game series in Canada, the Oilers having dropped the first two, and willed Peninsula to a 1-0 victory behind an exhausting 147 pitches over nine innings.

"That's kind of my fondest memory is the first time going out and pitching," he said.

His own soothing techniques in his back pocket these days, Machado is now helping foster similar memories for players as he soon begins a new venture as a volunteer assistant working with pitchers on the California State University Bakersfield baseball team, a first-year, Division I program competing against some of the top teams in California.

"At the junior college level, you have those type of athletes, maybe four or five per team are Division I guys or draft guys," said the 33-year-old Machado, coming off a two-year stretch as the pitching coach at Allen Hancock Community College in California. "Now, you have a whole squad of Division I athletes and 10 draft guys, so you're just dealing with a higher caliber athlete, kind of like here in the summer."

If his two stints with the Oilers are indicative of what the Roadrunners can expect, watch out Golden State!

One summer after guiding the second-best staff in the Alaska Baseball League, Machado's stable of arms is second fiddle to no one this year, boasting the top three individual earned run averages, while also leading the ABL as a team with a 2.44 ERA.

Machado, however, deflects any credit that may fly his way.

"That's just all a testament to the guys," he said. "We have a good group of pitchers that, No. 1, are competitive and they're talented. So, when you have competitive, talented individuals, they're going to do good things. So, from my standpoint, I just try to stay out of their way, not mess them up.

"There isn't a whole lot of credit on my end. I just try to keep them healthy, keep them in positions to be successful and hand them the ball and tell them to go to work. They're a talented and confident enough group to do that."

He's also quick to shy away from recognition attained from setting the Alaska single-season rushing record for the Kardinals in '93, roughly seven years removed from living in California. The mark has since been surpassed.

"As a running back, we had an unbelievable offensive line. So for me, I was just fortunate to hit it at the right time," said Machado. "We had an experienced line and I just got to run behind them."

Success isn't new to Machado.

The rushing record already under his belt, he was drafted in the 42nd round of the 1994 amateur draft by the Montreal Expos fresh out of high school, yet still pursued an education and a college baseball career, something he knew he wanted to accomplish from the get-go.

"Everyone that plays the game dreams of playing in the seventh game of a World Series and being on the mound and winning it, otherwise they wouldn't be playing," he said. "I kind of looked at it from kind of a more realistic aspect of I didn't throw 93 (mph). Although I was left-handed, 5-foot-9 left-handers aren't in the big leagues too often.

"I kind of looked at it as more of a realistic opportunity for me to go to college and get an education with baseball than I did pursuing a professional career."

Four years at four different colleges provided him that chance, and while playing collegiate ball, including one year at Oral Roberts University, Machado recognized another calling.

"I knew I wanted to coach in college when I was still playing in college," he said, adding that he served as the assistant head coach and pitching coach at East High School in Anchorage from 2001-05. "So, being in Anchorage and just kind of getting my feet wet at the high school level and learning and just kind of waiting for the right opportunity for me to move out of state and go pursue."

Spending one year as the catching and pitching coach at Porterville College before a couple more seasons at Allen Hancock has prepared this baseball mind for what ensues at the next level.

"It's fun when you have a lot of talented players that the coaching part of it gets a little smaller to where you're just working more on just minor adjustments instead of major building," he said. "Our athletes here are some of the best in the country. Working with them, it's really easy. You can tell them one thing and they can make that adjustment right on the spot. It's enjoyable as a coach when you have guys that are athletically capable and mentally capable of making adjustments and doing it on the fly or doing it in the bullpen."

Bakersfield, a program in its infancy, will present challenges never before seen by Machado, who appears ready to embrace each and every one with ease.

There's uniforms to order, for both games and practices, schedules to construct, training regiments to set and, of course, baseballs to be procured.

"All the basic stuff that's not there," he said. "So it's really starting from ground zero and so it will be fun to be a part of a program from its initial beginning."

There's little doubt he's ready for the challenge.

"I think Dennis is in a great situation where he is going to learn a lot of baseball, a different style of baseball," said Oilers manager Tom Myers, who also coached at Porterville, although not with Machado, and is currently the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator for the University of California Santa Barbara baseball team, which will play Bakersfield twice this upcoming season. "I think he's in store for a great thing. It's like a gift that's going to keep giving by being there with (coach Bill) Kernen."

Third-year Oilers general manager Shawn Maltby agrees.

Maltby, who was unaware of Machado before the pitching coach contacted him about the job prior to last summer, said Machado valuably contributed to the construction of this summer's squad.

"He's very knowledgeable about the pitching game," he said. "He works with these guys, he develops them. He's not here to change anybody's delivery, anybody's stance. He's just here to help them get better and he's doing a great job of it. It shows in our earned run average.

"He's done a great job and he's going to do a great job at Cal State Bakersfield."

A shining example of his tutelage comes in the body of work exhibited by fellow left-handed hurler Brandon Dixon, who has now strung together three straight quality starts for Peninsula, allowing just one earned run in his last 16 2/3 innings.

"Listening to what he said about his career, me and him don't exactly set the world on fire with our velocity, so that was one of the main draws to me coming up here this year was the fact my head coach (Myers) was a left-handed pitcher and then coming into the situation and finding out that my pitching coach was a left-handed pitcher, too," Dixon said. "So, coming up, for a left-handed pitcher, this is just the perfect opportunity and the perfect place for me to be."

Orange Coast College should be pleased with Dixon's progress, something he credits to Machado, who quickly swats it away.

"I think that is the credit that he gets because there is a fine line of trying to do too much and not doing enough. He keeps it real loose and keeps it real light, but at the same time, he has the utmost respect of every single pitcher on this staff," Dixon explained. "I think everyone kind of respects his position and kind of goes by what he says and buys into his system and I think that's why we've been so successful.

"As much as he might not want to take credit for kind of being a laid-back guy, I think he's done a great job of finding that balance, being able to be our friend and kind of being real loose with us, but commanding that respect, too, being that coach that I think he should be."

Even more impressive to Maltby than Machado's resume on the field, though, is his persona off of it.

"We call him the mayor. He's like the icon of Kenai," Maltby laughed. "I can't go to the grocery store without somebody knowing who he is.

"I don't know what it is. I don't know what he holds here or what he holds it over. He's an icon in Kenai."

That notoriety may only be enhanced as the years roll on.

Unsure of what lies ahead with his new position, Machado -- whose parents and brothers still reside in the Kenai area -- would like to return for a third summer next year in hopefully guiding the Oilers to their first ABL crown since 2006.

And he wouldn't mind doing it from a different set of shoes, either.

"Some point, hopefully in the future, get to manage this squad," Machado said.

The future may be closer than he thinks.

"We've had conversations with Dennis about that and I told him last year that I thought he was one to two years away," Maltby explained. "I think in the future, Dennis will be a head coach here with the Peninsula Oilers. I'd like to see it.

"It would be a great move as far as a local thing for someone that can come back and manage the Oilers. I foresee it in the future. ... One day he will manage this club, I'm sure."

Machado obviously knows what it takes to win, having been a member of the last Oilers team to capture the National Baseball Congress World Series title back in 1994, the first of four summers spent with the team where he compiled a 3.06 ERA in 79 1/3 innings of work.

"We had a lot of good baseball players and a lot of characters as well," he said. "So, it was a great learning experience for me. It's never bad when you end your season in a dog pile."

With Peninsula's third consecutive trip Wichita, Kan., commencing at 7 p.m. Alaska time today when they take on the Southern California Bombers, Machado -- who has been to the tournament five times, four years as a player and last year as a coach -- is hoping the Oilers' solid pitching travels the thousands of miles with them and the bats come alive as well.

"Anytime you have a chance to go compete for a World Series championship, it's exciting," he said. "Hopefully it ends in a dog pile. That's always a plus."

Machado's methods speak for themselves. Because whatever he's doing, it appears to be working.

"He kind of relates to you, but at the same time, lets me know what I should worry about, what I should concentrate on and some things that are in my control. Also, puts an emphasis on there's a lot of things in this game are out of my control," Dixon said. "It's a game of failure and to kind of just accept the fact that you're going to lose a lot, but when you win and succeed it's going to be that much sweeter.

"So, he kind of really put things in perspective for me, especially through times when I was struggling this summer."

The consensus amongst members of the Oilers organization is that Machado's day will come, whether it be with the Oilers, a university or a professional team.

And when it does, he'll be ready.

"I'd love to play for him," Dixon said without hesitation. "If he ever does get that job and if anyone was to ever call me and ask me what I thought about Dennis Machado, I'd have nothing but good things to say about him. I think he could be the skipper of a team anytime."

Matthew Carroll can be reached at matthew.carroll@peninsulaclarion.com.