Coaches: Dylan Kuhn (head coach), Lance Abbott (assistant coach), Randy Avalos (assistant coach), Troy Nelson (assistant coach), Tanner Salazar (assistant coach)
Top Returners: Andrew Choi (12), Andre Katayama (12), Mateo Ramirez (11)
Top Newcomers: Dallas Girod (10), Brian Kim (12), Evan Sung (12)
Last Season: Under the leadership of former head baseball coach Christopher Vogt, the Lancers finished fourth in the Freeway League with a 5-5 record (overall 11-12-2). They failed to reach the CIF playoffs.
Outlook: Kuhn, who was an assistant coach last season, took over for Vogt after he decided to resign as head coach. One main goal the program’s new leader has is to win the inaugural Freeway League title.
Although the name remains the same, the newly formed Freeway League now comprises different schools as a result of CIF-SS officials deciding to create new conferences. Now, the Lancers face unfamiliar opponents, Esperanza High School (3-6 last season) and Brea Olinda High School (1-8 last season), and familiar opponents from last season, Sonora High School (4-6 last season) and Troy High School (2-8 last season).
The new head coach’s goal is to also make CIF playoffs. Alongside this change in leadership, the Lancers hope to improve their team bond and strengthen their hitting.
“Obviously, I have more responsibility now,” said Kuhn, who played the sport as a pitcher and outfielder during his years on the Sunny Hills varsity baseball team in 2007-2008. “But Coach Vogt and I worked together for a long time so a lot of things stayed the same in terms of the way our team is run.”
Although some coaching aspects stayed the same, such as how practices are run, outfielder Sung said the new head coach is different in terms of the level of connection they have.
“We’re definitely a lot more eager to play under Coach Kuhn,” Sung said. “It’s easy to connect with him because he shows that he’s open to making connections with us.”
With his added responsibility, Kuhn said he hopes to further strengthen the team beyond just victories.
“My personal goal as the head coach is to win as many games as possible while simultaneously maintaining a positive atmosphere that allows for the athletes to enjoy themselves and get the most out of their time in the program,” the head coach said.
Pitcher Katayama has similar goals to improve team chemistry as he wraps up his final year on the mound.
“I plan on fulfilling my role to underclassmen by setting an example of being a player with good sportsmanship,” he said. “I feel that having the new head coach is a great improvement, and I feel that the team chemistry is going to improve.”
With this sentiment, the head coach also looks forward to the new changes this season.
“We graduated a lot of players from last year, but we also returned some pretty key [players] so that’s why we’re looking for a lot of new players to step up this year,” Kuhn said.
The new league brings in some uncertainty, Kuhn said.
“We don’t know really what to expect from Brea and Esperanza, so we certainly don’t want to overlook them as league opponents,” Kuhn said. “But I would say, biasedly from previous years, I would definitely look at Sonora and Troy.”
Despite not making CIF playoffs last season, Sung said he hopes to win the league champion title this time around.
“We definitely have the skills to be able to win ball games, but we just need to translate that into games,” he said.
Kuhn said the team plans to sharpen skills that failed to shine last season.
“Our weakness last season would be timely [and] clutch hitting and coming up with big hits in critical situations to drive in runs,” he said. “This is a constant point of emphasis that we hope to continue to improve on as the season progresses.”
To utilize the team’s strengths of pitching and defense, the head coach holds practices to teach them to stay focused on sharpening a skill each time.
“We have detailed practices so each day we kind of have something that we’re focusing on to keep our practice,” he said. “So we might pick out a certain philosophy for hitting for that day, and that’s going to be our main focus or something specific for defense.”
The team will play its first league match against Sonora High School at home on Monday, March 10, at 3:15 p.m.
