2007 Season Preview

Third year coach Felix Torres III [23-22] EC Central Cardinals return 11 Players from last year’s team.

Jake Cuevas - JR	Alberto Hernandez - JR	Greg Day - JR	Jose Rivera - JR
	John Tarver - SR	Justin Salas - SR

Top Hitters: Juniors – Jake Cuevas 438[BA], Alberto Hernandez 345[BA] / Greg Day 286 [BA] / Jose Rivera 278 [BA] / Roger Ferreira 263[BA]  - Seniors – John Tarver 291[BA] / Justin Salas 276 [BA] are the top retuning hitters from last season’s team. 

Pitchers: [Juniors] – Jake Cuevas 2-0 / 0.82era & Greg Day 1-2 / 3.00era are the top returning pitchers.

Defense: We will be much improved on defense this season. Our talented outfield will be led by SR- John Tarver who will move to center field replacing 2006 MVP Ryan Rodriguez who graduated, JR’s – Clint Guerra, Jake Cuevas, Greg Day and speedster Ray Wilson will rotate in the outfield. Our infield will be just as competitive with two players at each position battling for playing time. Last seasons infield weakness was the shortstop position may be this seasons infield strength with JR- Eddie Arambula / SO- Miguel Covarrubias & FR- Mark Vidaurri sharing the position.  The catching duties will be shared by JRs- Alberto Hernandez & Jose Rivera.

Newcomers: Junior transfer Edward Arambula [SS-P], Sophomore [SS-P] Miguel Covarrubias and Freshman Mark Vidaurri [SS-P]

Strengths: The varsity players we have returning for this season played a lot of quality summer baseball in the off-season. We will field an experienced and talented team with all but two starters returning from last year’s sectional team. We will only dress 14 players, but the players we dress are versatile. Our pitching staff is much improved from last season. SR- Andy Ramos , JR-Jake Cuevas, Eddie Arambula, Roger Ferreira and FR- Mark Viduarri will help take the pressure off of Greg Day who last season was the only returning pitcher with varsity experience. We have the talent to compete with any team on our schedule.

Weakness: We look to improve on last season’s 10-10 record. Bad weather canceling 8 home games hurt us last season from gaining any momentum. This year we have had to deal with adversity early losing two returning players due to school violations. We will not start on a positive note but due to the depth we have in our program I remain optimistic.

Outlook: This has been along time coming but the pieces are finally coming together. The program is where I feel it should be. We are a serious contender for a sectional championship. In my 14 seasons at EC Central this is the best talent I have coached on any team. Nevertheless we will still be considered underdogs and we are just fine with that. We will surprise a lot of teams this season. Our goal of building a program that is talented and fundamentally sound is becoming a reality. The future looks promising with 10 underclassmen on the varsity roster. So stay tuned the best may be yet to come.

Varsity Baseball Coach: Felix Torres III