It’s been another tough baseball season for the Fighting Owls. The 2013 campaign finished with a 14-21 overall record and 8-16 record in conference play.
This is Citrus’ second straight losing season following last year’s 16-20 record.
With a 14-21 record you would think that the Owls never had a chance in the beginning of the season.
However, the team started the season winning eight out of their first 11 games including a five-game winning streak.
“With the way we were playing at the beginning of the year, we beat some very good teams,” said sophomore infielder William Ouellete. “I thought we would easily be a playoff contending team.”
But Citrus would go on to accumulate a pair of losing streaks that would derail their season. A four-game losing streak to end the month of February only gave way to a six game losing streak in March.
The team would only win two games the entire month.
“We didn’t live up to expectations, we all wanted to go to the playoffs,” said freshman outfielder Matthew Reynoso. “We started off pretty well, then we went on a drought.”
Although this season didn’t pan out well for Citrus, Reynoso is optimistic for next season going forward.
“Next year we’ll be sophomore-heavy, so we’ll have a lot of experience and I think it will translate into good things,” Reynoso said.
The team was comprised mostly of freshmen this season, with 22 first-year players on the roster compared to 12 sophomores.
Ouellete, who will sign with Cal State San Bernardino, thinks that these freshmen will take this experience and be a viable contender next season.
“I think we learned a lot this year and based with what we learned I think we can take that and get into the playoffs,” said Reynoso.
With the disappointing 2013 season over, Citrus is looking towards next season with much anticipation for some fresh new blood.
“We’re looking forward for a much better season next year,” said hitting coach Bill Viverto, “We have some real good recruits coming in and hopefully they can change the complex of a losing season.”
Head coach Steve Gomez is a little more leery of the incoming freshmen.
“Until the season starts, you don’t know what you have,” said Gomez. “It looks promising, but you just don’t know.”
