While Varsity Baseball at Placer got off to a shaky 2-10 overall start, the team has recently caught fire and has risen to an 8-11 record on the year, joining the JV team, which is 12-3 and has lost only one league game.

To junior Jordan Wood, who is a shortstop for the Varsity team, the reason for the team’s sudden turnaround is obvious, “We’re good now,” he said. “We [weren’t good] before, but now we are.” Statistics, however, show a much clearer reason for to team’s recent success — offense. Varsity spent part of spring break playing in a tournament down in Cordova, where they went 3-1, scoring twelve runs or more in all of their wins. Also encouraging was the fact was that the team held opponents to less than five runs in all of their wins. Continuing this trend of playing well on both sides of the ball will be vital if Varsity intends to make the playoffs, as their poor start means that they must at least split a two game series with Lincoln to make a playoff appearance possible.

Varsity had a tough go of it through the beginning of the season, and it showed on their record. They packed both a four game and a five game losing streak into their first twelve games. “Nothing was working,” said Wood. “We just couldn’t string anything together.” However, with the streak that Varsity is now on, the team has obviously turned that around. “I think we have a good shot to make the playoffs.” says Wood.

JV baseball, however, has positioned themselves to have a great shot at a PVL championship this season. Like Varsity, JV has an upcoming two game series against Lincoln. If the team wins either of those two games, they will be crowned champions of the Pioneer Valley League. The odds are in Placer’s favor; in their only game against Lincoln, Placer cruised to a 9-0 shutout win.

When watching the JV team play, it is obvious why there are where they are in the standings; they hit the ball. A good average for a player is .300; JV is batting nearly .400 as a team. They also pitch and play defense very well- they have held their opponent to three runs or less in nine games this season. A combination of both powerful hitting and solid defense will almost certainly give you a lot of wins, and it has for the JV team.