Last season, in Darrell Bolin's first year as head coach, the California softball team won three games. That was three more than the previous season.
Suffice to say, the Lady Pintos softball program is rebuilding, but after a winless season in 2014, the 3-18 mark last year was certainly an improvement. With most of the players coming back this fall, California figures to be headed in the right direction.
With Kaitlyn Turner, Paige Johnson, Braleigh Johnson, Destiny Cook and Abby Harris all back in the fold, there will be no shortage of familiar faces across the diamond. Of course, in softball it all starts on the mound, and Turner figures to be the Lady Pintos' top pitcher heading into the season.
"The pitcher can control the game," Bolin said. "If you have a good, strong pitcher, that becomes the key position. You have to have good fielders and stuff, but your pitchers need to be strong and ours are pretty solid."
The California pitchers, however, will be throwing to a new catcher this season after the graduation of Kaylee VanLoo. Aside from VanLoo, the Lady Pintos also lost Samantha Beckham and Jenna Reynolds to graduation, who played first base and left field, respectively. With three spots up for grabs, there's been competition to fill out the lineup.
"We keep evaluating," Bolin said. "The underclassmen coming in are pretty solid to help fill those positions. We're feeling enthused."
One week into practice, the players have focused mainly fielding and conditioning. It all goes back to Bolin's central message of fundamentals.
"We've talked a lot about what it means to be a team," he said. "Everybody here knows what they're supposed to do. If they make a mistake, they already know, so it's everybody's responsibility to pick them up and to encourage them."
While Tri-County Conference play will provide plenty of its own challenges for the Lady Pintos, it's non-conference games against Helias, Hickman and Battle that will give California a good sense of how it stacks up against some bigger programs.
"We're changing our schedule around to use it as a measuring stick to see where we're at and where we need to be," Bolin said.
When rebuilding any athletics program, half the challenge is finding the right players. The other half of it is finding extra time outisde the season for those players to get game experience and continue to improve. Bolin thinks winning can fix a lot of that.
"Excitement kind of breeds excitement," he said. "I think as we progress, as long as we keep performing and keep getting better and better, we're going to build the excitement up so the girls will naturally come out and want to play. Success builds upon itself a lot of times."
Make no mistake, the wins and losses matter, but for the Lady Pintos, coming together as a team will be the top priority this season.
"One of the goals I have is to see these girls come together so that they know they have each other's backs, especially on the field," Bolin said. "Obviously, I'd like to have more than three wins and I'd like to get some girls all-conference recognition."
The Lady Pintos will take the field for the first time Saturday. They host a Jamboree where the team will play controlled, shortened games against Eugene and Russellville.