As of Mar. 24, in the DeAnza league, the varsity baseball team has a record of 20-71, according to MaxPreps as of April 1.
This year’s team is still learning how to settle in, and unfortunately, plays a lot of good teams early in the season, head baseball varsity coach Zach Canez said. As an assistant coach, Canez saw many players burn out from 3-4 practices, so now as head coach, he wants to manage their workload better through Wednesday study hall, he said.
“The rest of our days are defense days and hitting days,” Canez said. “If we don’t have a Saturday game, then it’s more of a scrimmage where we throw everything together. They’re playing an actual game so they can see live pitching and batting.”
The varsity teams’ biggest obstacle so far is having junior varsity (JV) players and freshmen transition to varsity, Canez said. If you watch a JV game compared to a varsity game, the difference in speed and physicality is a big jump, he added.
“It’s just getting them to learn that speed and how things are done on a daily basis at this level,” Canez said. “Our biggest hurdle is just trying to get that speed and replicate it in practice.”
The hardest part of being on the varsity team is finding your role, junior Isaiah Rodriguez said. Once you know your role on the team, then it’s easy being on the team because you’re playing with confidence, Rodriguez, who plays catcher and utility, said.
“I feel like I got better and matured as not just a player, but a person just getting used to the environment of varsity,” Rodriguez said. “Knowing that it’s not just a one-man team and it’s all of us, I’m just contributing and making the most of my opportunity.”
In non-league games, the team still has to improve on a few things, Rodriguez said. I feel like our chemistry as friends is good, but as players, we need to be one unit, he said.
“All the teams we faced were competitive,” Rodriguez said. “There are games (non-league) that slipped by us that we know we should have had. And then there are games where we didn’t let our errors or any of that stuff get in the way, and we surpassed them and got the win.”
Practice games are a great way to improve your skill in baseball, Rodriguez said.
“I think especially for a lot of our guys that are newcomers, they’re (mostly) underclassmen, so practice is a good learning experience for them to grow and see the speed and everything on varsity,” Rodriguez said.
The biggest obstacle junior Ethan Wang encountered so far was relearning everything about baseball since he last played on a team in middle school, he said.
Some of Wang’s goals for the season are “potentially becoming a starter (starting pitcher),” Wang, who plays third base and outfielder, said. “Get a good amount of playing time, and if possible, win whatever championship we’re in.”
Wang is getting closer to his teammates as the season progresses, he said. It’s nice to have supportive teammates around you, he added. But when it comes to the crowd in the stands Wang doesn’t let it affect his gameplay, he said.
“I’m always focused when playing,” Wang said.
The varsity team has learned a lot from their non-league games, Canez said.
“The key factor in a lot of these games is when we’re actually throwing strikes, we’re in a lot of these games and winning them,” Canez said. “Whereas the games that we don’t do the small things correctly, the game gets out of hand quickly, so it’s just learning that we have to go about the business and do it the right way.”