The Olympic Heights baseball and softball seasons have finally arrived, and coaches Casey Beck and Cindy Lucia couldn’t have higher hopes for their respective teams.

The Lions baseball team is stacked with young talent that has all the right tools to succeed in the eyes of Coach Beck.

“We are very young with only two seniors and four juniors making up the 18 man roster,” Beck says. “I am very confident that we can make it to the playoffs this season with the great pitching and defense that we have.”

To be successful this season, the Lions baseball team will be relying on their pitching and defense to compensate for a team that does not feature a power-hitting lineup. Highlighting the stellar pitching staff are senior Jared Spector and juniors Matt Levine and Aaron Weldy.

Returning junior infielder Jason Patel is certain the Lions will have a winning team this year. “We have a very young team that is learning a lot,” Patel says. “We are going to win districts this year, for sure!”

Along with the veteran Lions are rookies who are chomping at the bit to show that they belong on this team with the experienced players. Freshman Brooks Lamb is at second base; sophomore Jonathan Marcus is at catcher; sophomore Roger Edge is at shortstop, and sophomore Carlos Gutierrez will patrol center field.

According to Beck, there is a need for improvement in “developing a killer instinct and a chip on our shoulder as a team. [We need to] expect to win and finish teams off when we have them on the ropes.”

Beck’s goal for his team is to finish with a record over .500 and a trip to the playoffs. Beck stresses that anything else will be considered to be an underachieving effort by everyone involved.

In order to achieve this goal, Beck needs the team to “have trust in each other and trust in the coaching staff. [The players need to] put the team before any individual effort and buy into the team concept.”

The Lions girls’ softball team has the same drive, determination, and goal for this season. This is a group of girls that, when everything clicks together, will be very hard to defeat.

Coach Lucia has already noted improvements from her returning players, especially in senior Taylor Doherty. Because of a lack of strong pitching, Doherty will vacate her usual position at shortstop to take over the majority of the pitching duties. Lucia says Doherty has adjusted extremely well to the move as she seems very comfortable on the mound.

Other high-caliber players are found in freshman Peri Spector, an extremely athletic, young talent who looks to be a major strength of the team over the next couple years, and sophomore Theresa Stettner, who hit a grand slam the first game of the season.

Stettner comments, “I think that as a team we will continue to improve everyday on the field, and by the end of the season, we will be a strong team to compete with.”

Pitching is the focal point for improvement. Coach Lucia believes that if the pitching staff is able to stay strong through all seven innings of every game, the Lady Lions could be an almost unstoppable team.

Lucia stresses that anything less than advancing beyond districts will not be a successful season. That could be a tall order considering the Lions are in the same district with a few very strong teams including Dwyer and rival West Boca.

Both teams are ecstatic and anticipating what this season holds in store for them. If both teams are able to hold up their end of the bargain, it looks like the Lions could be making a championship run on both the big and small diamonds in 2016.