Ten new players have been added to this seasons Cerritos College softball team, including pitchers Amanda Frazier and Jennifer Navarro.

Sophomore first baseman Haley Petruccelli said, “We’re trying to get them to gel as quickly as possible so we can start off strong.”

Second baseman and outfielder Monique Ramirez, also a sophomore, added, “We’re communicating a little more and since there are a lot of freshmen, we’re just trying to help them out so that they can be on the same page as us.”

The Falcon’s first game of the season is on Jan. 27 against Glendale College at Nancy Kelly Field.

Head coach Kaydee Murray believes that the combined work of the new and returning players will make a strong team throughout the season.

“You have a group of freshmen that don’t know what to expect and sophomores that were chomping at the bit at regionals last year and just fell short a little bit and we’d really like to get back to that place and they’re working hard to do that,” she said.

Cerritos ended their 2014 season with a 33-12 record and fell short at the CCCAA Super Regionals with a late-inning 7-6 loss to Santa Ana College.

Ramirez and Petruccelli are looking forward to playing East Los Angeles College, who during the 2014 season defeated the Falcons twice and lost once, with all three meetings defined by one run.

As for Murray, “I think every team that we play is our biggest rival. Every game we have, they’re our rival, they’re the one we want to beat and is there some special team? Not necessarily. I think teams that get caught up in one team and wanting to beat one team wind up losing little games along the way, so we’re trying to focus on that game, that day and them being our biggest nemesis.

“We have a good group of players, good group of freshmen that came in that will help us. I think we have a good mix of power and speed and some play defense pretty well and hit and pitch pretty well,” Murray added.