Baseball

RANCHO CORDOVA, CA (MPG) - It's a new year, a new coach, and a new direction for the Cordova Lancers varsity baseball team.

Coming off last season’s 20-0 loss in the opening round of their CIF Sac Joaquin Section Division III playoff game at Capital Christian, the Lancers have made a change at skipper. Enter new head coach Scott Ahlstrom, who takes over for departing coach Doug Hughes.

Under Hughes last season, the Lancers finished 9-13 overall, including an 8-7 mark within Greater Sacramento League play, good enough for a second place finish. West Campus took home the league title with a flawless 15-0 record in league play. The Lancers' postseason berth was the lone playoff appearance the team made in Hughes' three seasons at the helm.

Ahlstrom, a well-known Little League and travel baseball coach in the area for the Arsenal baseball program, will be tasked with the challenge of guiding the Lancers to their first playoff win in over a decade.

"Our goal is to win league," Ahlstrom said. "Honestly, I don't care about the other schools in our league. I don't pay attention to what they're doing. We're focused on what we need to do. We need to lay the groundwork and lay the foundation, and the first step to doing that is to win league this year."

Although Ahlstrom is in his first year with the program, he does have one distinct advantage that should bode well in the acclimation process and speed up the learning curve for the team. As a Little League and travel ball coach in the area over the past seven years, Ahlstrom has coached a fair number of the players on the team. With eight players returning from last seasons' group, there will be a solid mix of experience and youth for Ahlstrom to tinker with.

Regardless of the outcome however, this season will serve as the first under a new regime at Cordova, with expectations being put in place that Ahlstrom feels will serve well in the long run.

"We want to reestablish the players' will to compete and play for the school," he said. "We want to lay a foundation that we can build on, and put Cordova back on the map."

Softball

RANCHO CORDOVA, CA (MPG) - The Cordova Lady Lancers softball team didn't have to wait long this spring to avenge their postseason defeat at Del Campo from last May.

In their opening preseason game on February 28, Cordova placed themselves right back at the scene of the crime as they took on the Lady Cougars. Only this time, the outcome was to the Lady Lancers' liking as they earned a 14-10 victory.

With 11 players returning from last years' squad, the win had to have helped remove some of the bitter taste from their mouths regarding the 2-0 playoff loss. After a successful campaign a season ago that saw Cordova go 12-5 overall, including a 9-1 record within the Greater Sacramento League which was good for a share of the league title with West Campus, the early round playoff exit wasn't what they wanted. But with a large returning core group led by head coach Kim Little, the Lady Lancers figure to be right back in the thick of things when it's all said and done.

Key returnees include senior outfielder Jazmine Hull, junior pitcher Mikaela Cornish, junior outfielder Ariana Rios, junior first baseman Erica Jackson, and sophomore standout pitcher Diane Salinas. Salinas, who served as the team’s ace last season and performed well as a freshman, will be counted on heavily this year as she looks to continue to improve.

Little, who is in her fourth season at the helm of the Cordova softball program, will look to lead her team to back-to-back playoff appearances for the first time since the 2015 and 2016 seasons, respectively. Little has quickly made her mark within Cordova athletics as both the varsity softball and varsity girls basketball coach. This winter, Little earned herself Coach of the Year honors within the Greater Sacramento League for girls basketball. Under her tutelage, the Cordova softball program is certainly in good hands.