This season’s boys’ baseball is determined to go far. Competing in the South Yosemite League with an overall of 2-5, these boys’ are hopeful to go far this season and make it to both Valley and State Championship. Last season’s team was unfortunately eliminated in their first round of playoffs losing 2-5 against Central High School but are looking to make a comeback this season.
Senior shortstop, Adam Salazar, has been on Varsity for four years and has made it a priority to become the best teammate and player he can possibly be, “For this season I just want to become a better teammate and just help my team win,” claims Salazar. Salazar has played baseball since he was very young, his inspiration to play this sport came from playing it with family members which led to him pursuing it further on. He plans to continue playing after High school at Cal State Bakersfield.
Salazar believes the team’s greatest challenge this year will be to go against Bakersfield Christian High school due to past year’s where they were always met with a challenge. “ This year will probably be the league rival, Bakersfield Christian High school because it’s always a tough game against them and we always played a hard game against them all four years here competing for the league championship”, states Salazar.
Also agreeing with this statement is Senior middle field and outfielder, Jordan Brito. “Bakersfield Christian, they have a lot of strong guy’s on the mound and it’s going to be a rough battle with them,” added Brito has been playing baseball for as long as he can remember since three years-old. He recalls always being surrounded by baseball which influenced his decision to join the sport. Being on Varsity all four years, he was able to see the development in himself as a player and see how far he has come. Brito claims, “ As a player, you know when I first joined I was just worried about myself just trying to be an eye guy and get the stats up do all this but now once you go on like you know you got to help your team out, it’s not just you, it’s a team sport you know, you got to help your guys”.
Coach Jason Hunsaker has been head coach for boys’ baseball for twenty-three years. Hunsaker got into baseball himself by playing in high school and went on to continue playing as catcher for Point Loma University. He describes this sport as very difficult to take on, not just physically but mentally as well, “ It takes a lot of discipline because it’s a skill sport, so you got to be able to hit the ball, hitting a baseball is really difficult to do especially at the higher levels, a lot of patience, a lot of like repetition like any other sport but it takes a lot of patience in baseball cause it’s hard to learn”, states Hunsaker. One of Hunsaker’s fondest memories from coaching at Ridgeview is winning the State Championship in 21. His biggest hope is that they can make that happen again this year.
