The Lancer varsity baseball team recently welcomed two new coaches Sonny Merlo and Anthony Torres to their program. While both are varsity assistant coaches, Merlo specializes in infield and outfield technique and is a fielding coordinator, while Torres works with catchers and is a catching coordinator.
Torres comes from La Jolla Country Day High School and is the founder of Performance Catching Academy. He had also previously played collegiate-level baseball at Point Loma Nazarene University and The University of Iowa.
“The biggest part is the catching position,” senior pitcher Ian Fisher said. “We lost our catcher from last year and we struggled to find catchers to fill that position and train our catchers to fill that.”
In baseball, the catcher is involved with every play, making sure the infield positions are in the right stop depending on the play, as well as framing the ball for the pitchers. Torres works to improve the catcher’s skill set which helps the team overall.
“The biggest help for me is Coach Anthony with the catcher because I’m a pitcher,” Fisher said. “He gives me someone to throw to with confidence and someone who’s going to be behind the plate.”
This is Carlsbad’s first time having a catcher specific coach and the players believe that having this new addition to the staff can drastically improve the catcher’s techniques and skills. The Lancers are excited for this new addition to the staff as well as the advancement in their techniques.
“Coach Anthony helps tweak stuff and helps me focus on things I may not be focusing on,” junior catcher AJ Vurbeff said. “Things like pop-time, arm slots and blocking.”
Merlo comes from Oceanside High School and has also coached travel baseball all throughout California. Although he hasn’t been here long, players believe that he is already making a difference in the team’s dynamic.
“Coach Sonny is a great infield coach and let alone a good coach overall,” junior middle infielder Matthew Kelley said. “He teaches us a lot of stuff like the little things like when we are warming up the right catch play and just like what to think when we are on the field.”
The new coaches work hard to have an overall impact on the team and go the extra mile to work with and develop each player. This attention to detail can make the lancer baseball team even more competitive against other schools in their league.
“They focus on what I need to do to get better and just improve overall,” junior pitcher and outfielder Ben Lopez said. “Coach Sonny helps me in the outfield, being quick on my feet and transferring a throw and just overall fielding abilities.”
Many players believe that having good coaching is essential for success, not only in baseball, but many other sports as well. Coach Scott De Jong is the head coach of Lancer baseball and played Minor League baseball with the Los Angeles Dodgers’ AZL Dodgers, Great Lake Loons and the Ogden Raptors.
“Coach Scott, our head coach, is a great coach. I think they feed off each other and a bunch of positive vibes are going to help the team,” Kelley said. “Carlsbad has a good culture so I think Scott is bringing that over to them. They are both great people so it’s definitely going to be a great season with them working together.”
As the records show, the Lancers have been successful in the past going 9-6 in league during last year’s season. The additions of these new coaches have the Lancers invisoning more success to come this season.
“They’re really motivational and make sure we get our work done,” junior third-baseman and pitcher Kingston Jarrard said. “They put in your mind that you can do anything, this is the team to make it this year.”
