The De Anza College baseball team has high hopes for their 2011 season, which started off Feb. 4 in a preseason game against Shasta College.

The team started practicing weeks ago, working to get into shape before the season started.

“We’re going through a lot of the defensive situations,” assistant coach Tai Mitchell said. “We’re also working on bunt defenses and taking ground balls and repetitions.”

In addition to working on their defense, Mitchell noted that the team is also practicing their situational hitting so that they can execute offensively when the season starts.

Last season, the Dons finished 11-24 overall and 9-16 for the conference season. Mitchell said that their obvious goal for the 2011 season would be to improve that.

According to Mitchell, they haven’t sat down as a team to determine specific goals for the season together.

One of many looking forward to the season is up-and-coming pitcher Lorenzo Ojeda, who will be playing his first season for the De Anza Dons. Transitioning from his Del Mar High School team to playing in community college hasn’t been too difficult, he said.  

He has known some of the players on the Dons’ baseball team since his days playing Little League. The only difference for him is their individual skill sets.

“Last season, our toughest competition was Chabot and San Mateo and we always have pretty good battles with West Valley and Mission,” Mitchell said.

The College of San Mateo is ranked number one in the Northern California divison, with Chabot College following closely in third and West Valley College further down at number 13, based on a poll taken by the 2011 California Community College Baseball Coaches Association

The players to look out for this season are pitchers Chris Drake and Shian Vidanage, said Mitchell, who cites them as the “top two guys in our starting rotation.”

Overall, the team looks forward to their season hoping for improvement over last year.