The California Pintos softball team is looking to build off of last season, after finishing 11-14 and making it to the Class 2, District 10 semifinals.
Head coach Steven Stock said the team wants to take that next step and finish in the top half of their conference.
"Although we lost some good seniors, we have a lot of kids returning, who played quite a bit. We are going to try to continue to get better and keep going up," Stock said.
The Pintos will be focusing on the basics when they host their upcoming jamboree at 10 a.m. Aug. 18 at California. The first game of the season will be at 8 a.m. Aug. 25 at the Marshall tournament.
"We are trying to figure out who is going to play where and we feel like we have to get a little bit better defensively. That is one of our biggest focuses," Stock said.
On offense, Stock said the team is focused on just getting the bat on the ball and make the other team play good defense and get outs.
As the season progresses, Stock said he would like the team to work on the mental aspect of the game, especially on offense.
"Every time you go up as a hitter, we try to preach to the kids that they have an objective; whether it be move a runner over or drive someone in," Stock said. "So, with every game we play, we want to get better at the mental part of thinking 'what is my objective' and getting it done."
On defense, Stock wants the team to make the routine plays and make it harder for their opponent to score, by not giving away outs.
Even though the team lost last year's seniors, Stock said they have good leaders, who know what the coaches are expecting.
"We have a lot of kids who did quite a bit last year, so we feel like going in, that they got a year with me; so they understand my expectations and that can only help us in our process of trying to make them better, when we don't have (to) review stuff." Stock said. "We can just expand on what we started."