There are high hopes for the Los Medanos College baseball team as they head into a new season. Head coach Anthony D’Albora returns once again this year with a newer, hopeful team.

“We are a younger group, in terms of age and experience and with that comes some learning and experiencing both in success and failure,” said D’Albora.

These newer players have been travelling together since the summer under the name “Legends.” Improvement has already been spotted within the group from the seven-month period they have been together and has been taken into account heading toward the Spring of 2016 season.

“We’ve definitely seen guys come a long way in many aspects. More than anything I think we continue to see guys getting stronger and stronger,” said D’Albora. “As we continue to get stronger, we see guys capable of utilizing the skill development accomplished in practice to play at a much more aggressive pace.”

The team is no stranger to a game situation. Practices consist of non-stop movement and training, as well as intersquad games, where they invite people to watch on occasion. During these games, the team is divided into two and face off against live pitching. By doing so, the team is exposed to real game situations as batters get the training they need to see movement on a ball. Pitchers are exposed to live batters as opposed to throwing bullpens, and defense gets a chance to get a taste of fast action play.

“The biggest challenge in those intersquad environments is working towards developing a better feel for the game. Learning how to play together, how to communicate with one another, and how to play with confidence and energy,” said D’Albora.

Coming into a new year, the boys understand that no position is set in stone as they have to compete against fellow teammates in order to make the starting nine. Position Coach Bret Ringer explains that a starting line up has not been made and decisions will come to once they are faced in an actual game.

“As far as a starting lineup right now, guys are still competing for starting roles as well as off the bench roles. We are constantly striving to create a competitive environment to see which guys rise to the top, and those are the guys that will be in the starting lineup,” said Ringer.

Overall, the coaching staff is happy with the hard work and dedication they see on the field. They feel although there is work to be done, they are ready to unleash the potential of the boys into a game and have confidence that the team will strive and reach its potential.

“I believe the team mentality right now is they are ready to compete and begin the season. They have played a lot of scrimmages against each other and over the fall and January,” said Ringer. “They are ready to compete against someone else.”