After experiencing a down year last season, the Diamond Bar High School baseball team has kicked off the season with a solid 5-4 record.

The Brahmas are already seeing improvements, winning against teams they lost to last year. They won a double header against Diamond Ranch on Feb. 24, 8-1 and 6-3.

The Brahmas also competed in the Chino Hills tournament in a span of two weeks against four schools. During the tournament, they defeated Adeltano and Shadow Hills, 1-0 and 10-1; however, the team had a tough stretch against Northview and Norco, losing 7-0 and 4-3.

“We were beating [Norco] 3-0 in the 5th inning. Then, they came back to beat us 4-3, but we played very well that day,” head coach Jon Hurst said. “I think it was a big turning point for us, and moving into the season, we will probably continue to move forward that way.”

Prior to the season, the team focused heavily on their fundamentals. The boys have also been training with a strength coach, who has designed workouts specifically for baseball athletes, two to three times a week.

“We are more focused this year, and our key goal is to make CIF,” senior Tyler Liebe said.

The top pitchers this year, according to Hurst, are seniors Cruz Rivas and Richard Teran. On offense, experienced players returning include  senior captain Fabian Moran and sophomore Alonzo Fuller, who also won Offensive Player of the Year last season as a freshman.

Amongst the multiple seniors on the team, Matthew Hernando stands out as the only freshman on the varsity team.  

“Matthew is physically very mature for a freshman and very strong and very fast,” Hurst said. “He’s very baseball savvy and very knowledgeable when it comes to the workings of the game and what we would do in certain situations. For his age, he is very baseball smart, and moving forward, it’s important that we have a lot of young players like Matthew to play next year and achieve big roles.”

Along with pushing for a successful season, the coach said he hopes that all of the players have fun, especially the 11 seniors in the program.

“I think it will be a fun year for them because they have really put themselves in a position to be successful. At this point, it is in my best interest to just step back and let them perform and enjoy themselves,” Hurst said.