Glendora, CA (Baseball) -- The Citrus College Baseball team kicks off their 2012 season this afternoon at Cerritos College, and expectations are high for the Owls this year. Citrus returns seven regulars from last year’s squad that qualified for the CCCAA SoCal Playoffs. Included in that is the Owls’ getting back their top two starting pitchers from last year, and pitching, could be the key to Citrus’ success this season.
“We have very high expectations because we feel that we have a good core of sophomores back from last year’s team that was very successful. We feel like we are in a good position to compete for the conference championship,” Citrus College Head Baseball Coach Steve Gomez said.
Embedded in those expectations is the realization that coming into this season their strength will lie in their arms and the experience and success they received last season.
“Pitching is going to be our strength, period. I think that we have the potential to have a very consistent offense, and based on what I saw in the fall, I think we will have a very consistent defense,” Gomez said. “We should be strong overall, but there’s no doubt about it that pitching is going to be our strength.”
The confidence in their staff exists not only because they bring back experienced arms, but because they bring back successful arms. Sophomore’s Richard Perry and Mikey Ramirez both posted ERA’s under three last year and combined for 12 wins. Perry was a 1st team All-WSC Selection, while Ramirez was a 2nd team honoree.
“We’ve had this amount of experience return on our staff before, but as far as the quality that we have coming back we haven’t had anything like that. We have two all-conference pitchers coming back, and that has never occurred,” Gomez said. “We want to see [Richard] Perry and [Mikey] Ramirez come back and give us at the very least what they did last year, and if they can improve on the numbers they put up last year, we’ll be in great shape.”
Along with the dynamic duo of Ramirez and Perry back on the hill for Citrus, the Owls return top reliever Allende Esquivel and get back Daniel Clark who played in 2010, but sat out 2011 due to an injury.
“We have high hopes for Allende [Esquivel]. He’s been retooled a little bit, and that’s starting to show up in his movement. He pitched tremendously in the fall for us,” Gomez said. “Daniel Clark is another one we like. After sitting out last year, he’s looking much better than we’ve ever seen him and his maturity level is improving.”
Besides the pitching, Citrus also has some things to be excited about in regards to their offense. The Owls return second baseman Shane Fraijo who has the potential to be the program’s first conference player of the year since 2002. In addition, Citrus gets back Nick Oddo who will be making the transition from first base to catcher this season, and outfielder Jonathon Hernandez who was just as impressive with his glove last year as he was with his bat.
“There are high expectations for Shane [Fraijo], but he doesn’t need to put too much pressure on himself. There’s going to be enough quality hitters around him that he doesn’t have to be responsible for our offensive production, but we know he can have a big year,” Gomez said.
“We’re hoping Nick [Oddo] will make the transition from first base to catcher, and still keep the offensive production he gave us last year,” Gomez said. “In the outfield, we’ll be looking to Jonathon Hernandez to lead us. He had a good year last year, and we think he can get even better this year.”
With the potential experienced pieces in place as well as a number of talented freshman in the fold, the Owls will take the season a step at a time, and try to improve as the season wears on.
“We just have to get better through the whole year. If you stay the same from the beginning to the middle to the end of the year, you’re going to have a losing season. So in reality everyone is going to have to get better,” Gomez said.
“I equate it this way; all I ask of our guys is that they individually get a quarter of an inch better. If they do that, then together as a team we’ve gotten a couple of feet better. What we are talking about is small improvements from everyone so as a whole we see a large improvement. If we can get that, that’s pretty good,” Gomez said.
With that in mind, things seem to be looking up for Citrus in 2012, and expectations are the highest they may have ever been under Gomez.
“I did something this year that I don’t really do very often. We set the bar really high this year, winning a conference championship and going deep into the playoffs,” Gomez said. “We think we have the pieces to accomplish that.”