Brahmas end season far from home
BASEBALL Growing potential for the future after a rocky season on the mound this year.
Junior Will Murphy had a .288 batting average and scored 12 runs for the team.
Diamond Bar High School baseball lost grasp of CIF, but head coach Jon Hurst is looking to next season.
The team ended this year with an overall record of 14-13 and a league standing of 6-9. The Brahmas lost the CIF qualifying game against Montclair, 4-3, on April 23.
This game and many others throughout the season were lost due to weaknesses in pitching.
“We always could score runs very easily but had trouble keeping runs off of the board,” Hurst said.
According to Hurst, too many free bases were given up due to walking and hitting batters. In addition, this season did not live up to Hurst’s expectations due to the inconsistent lineup.
“Overall, I think we were definitely better than we ended up performing, at least on paper,” Hurst said.
The struggles the Brahmas have faced this year will be a starting point for next season.
“I think we have a lot that we can build off of,” Hurst said.
The team will be focusing on lower body strength training during the offseason in an attempt to build better defensive skills.
“We will introduce some new stretching techniques and things to make sure that they’re prepared for a season long worth of pitching,” Hurst said.
Aside from his new plans for training, Hurst is confident in next year’s baseball players.
“Next year is the best senior class we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Hurst said. “I’m very excited about what they can bring to the table.”
Many of the returning varsity players will be pitchers, potentially alleviating troubles with pitching.
“It’s good and bad because our pitching has struggled this year, but we have lots of guys that have the opportunity to get better,” Hurst said.
Juniors Ryan Wang, Jacob Vargas and Jacob Parkin are the few lead pitchers for next season. Wang struckout 7 batters and had an ERA of 3.50 out of the 16 innings he pitched this season. Vargas had an ERA of 5.88 and also struckout 7 batters. In 15 innings, Parkin had 13 strikeouts.
Another standout player and hopeful leader for next year is junior Alonzo Fuller.
In 27 games, Fuller connected for 36 hits, scored 26 runs and collected 22 RBI.
“Fuller has been arguably our best payer for the last three years now,” Hurst said.
A leading rising outfielder is junior Chase Ferguson. He totalled six runs, five hits and three RBI in 23 games.
“He’s extremely fast, he’s a good hitter, he’s got a good arm, he’s got a great attitude and he’s a smart baseball player,” Hurst said.
Despite the hurdles the team faced this year, Hurst is excited for the following season.
“I think right now the program is in a really, really good point to kind of take a step forward, because we’ve kind of been at the same level the last couple of years,” Hurst said.
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