Losing in the Super Regionals to Orange Coast College at the end of last season, Cerritos College baseball Head Coach Ken Gaylord has been preparing the team with non-stop efforts and a fresh new squad.

“We’ve been working out and practicing really hard, and I feel like we will see our hard work payoff this season, ” pitcher Josh Schoenberger said.

The Falcons are coming off a season where Gaylord won Conference Coach of the Year and players Tim Soonthorngarun, Hector Gomez, and Christian Rodriguez were named First Team All Conference.

After losing some players during the off season, the whole team is looking forward to see some of the new talent coming in, such as newcomers Daniel Renteria and Chasen Holland.

With new incoming players, Gaylord is excited to start the new season but says he won’t name who he has high expectations for until the season has actually begun.

“With new incoming players our squad looks more sturdy, but I don’t want to mention any names until the season is well under way,” Gaylord said.

After playing the occasional fall games, Gaylord said this could be one of the toughest seasons in recent memory.

“We’ve seen East Los Angeles College, El Camino [College] and [Los Angeles] Harbor and needless to say they have really talented squads, not to mention Mount San Antonio College.,” Gaylord said.

With a record of 14 wins and seven losses in conference play last season, the Falcons look to dominate the tougher conference this season.

Other players sound extremely confident about their chances of winning the conference this season.

Left fielder Evan Sanchez said, “All the guys returning this season want to win the conference again, we might have the target on our backs. I have a good feeling that we’ll run over our conference this year.”

Coach Gaylord thinks that this team can go beyond the Super Regionals, and push for South Coast Conference Champions.

The Falcons play their first game on Feb. 3 against Citrus College at home.