Junior college sports always have lots of turnover, with most players staying for a maximum of two seasons.
Such turnover makes any game experience critical and EC’s baseball team will find out just how critical that experience is with nearly an entirely new team returning next season.
How quickly the new faces get acclimated with the team will go a long way in determining how last season’s whether the Warriors can repeat last season’s South Coast Conference co-championship season.
EC’s roster turnover starts with the starting pitching staff. All three of last year’s starters have departed, including All-SCC first team pitcher Garrett Ozar, who finished 15-1 last season.
“We lost three good pitchers but just because our guys are new, that doesn’t mean they don’t know how to pitch,” EC coach Nate Fernley said. “I think we are deeper on the mound than last season.”
Stepping in will be a new crop of freshman that includes Kellen Moen, Beau Hopps, Danny Morales and southpaw Ken Gravley, who is coming to EC from Brigham Young University.
One pitcher that will be returning is closer Percy Perez, who finished last season with 10 saves.
“We’ve got a good crop of young pitchers and we expect them to step up for us,” assistant coach Bill Hood said.
In the field, the Warriors will return only two position players from last season, infielder Ramon Marquez and outfielder Billy Madden. Marquez and Madden were EC’s key power source last year, each having a team leading four homeruns.
Newcomers expected to be key additions to the offense are third basemen Bob Hoskin (Palos Verdes), outfielder Dave Webber (Mira Costa) and second basemen Drew Rodella.
Their offensive contributions will be key to the success of the new-look Warriors this season, as will what they add to the defense. Fernley said one of his key concerns coming into the season is whether his young team will be able to play a high enough level of defense to compete in the SCC.
“They’re a young group and they don’t always have the best decision making in the field,” Fernley said. “It’s something that comes with more experience.”
Experience will be the key and even if it means a repeat of last year, where the Warriors got off to a slow start before finishing the season on a 15-2 tear, Fernley expects his young players to get better as the season wears on.
“As a coach, you like to know what you have and I think we have a good group here,” Fernley said. “It’s an exciting young team and we expect to be competitive in every game.”
