The defending PAC-7 League baseball champions have a new look.

That is, Righetti coach Brian Tomooka said, the Warriors don't have many returnees from the team that went 13-5 in league games en route to the league title.

“We don't have many guys coming back,” said Righetti coach Brian Tomooka. Players the Righetti coaching staff are counting heavily on include Ricky Cabigon, Taylor Mowatt, Chris Rivera, and pitchers Sam Halop and Timothy Dwyer.

The Warriors finished the pre-season 2-2. Righetti squared its record after dropping its first two games this season.

Tomooka said before the season started that Righetti would be counting on Rivera and Cabagon to provide solid hitting, and Cabigon delivered in the pre-season. Yes, the campaign is awfully young, but Cabigon hit .714 through the first four games.

Rivera, a returning All-Leaguer, hit .667 last week as the Warriors won twice. He earned the Northern Santa Barbara County Athletic Roundtable's Male Athlete of the Week award Monday.

Mowatt was hitting .571. Austin Muro was at .500. Halop was Righetti's pitching leader with a 1.91 earned run average.

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PAC-7 League play starts today. Righetti hosts Pioneer Valley at 4:30 p.m.

Arroyo Grande

The Eagles went through the pre-season 2-2. They will bid to grab one of the four guaranteed PAC-7 League playoff berths after just missing last season. Arroyo Grande did grab a wild card spot.

Arroyo Grande has some experience on its side, with eight seniors. The Eagles have two particularly heavy hitters from last year back, Corey Onaga and Lucas Kephart. Onaga hit .415 last year. Kephart batted. 338.

Sophomore Clark Goosen was 4-for-9 early. K.J. Calderon was 4-for-12. Onaga was 3-for-10.

Nathan Raubinger, a reliable infielder-pitcher for the Eagles last year, returns. So does Corey Butcher, another solid pitcher for the Eagles last season. Colt McLaughlin, a 2007 infield-outfield regular for the Eagles, is back.

Atascadero

The Greyhounds are counting heavily on Louis Coppo, a standout 2007 shortstop. Coppo hit .375 last year.

Atascadero made a late-season run and took the second PAC-7 playoff seed last year.

Coppo has picked up where he left off from last year. He was 4-for-8 in his first at-bats of 2008. Sophomore varsity newcomer Bryce Cherry was hitting .429 as of last weekend.

The Greyhounds are relying on varsity returnee Matt Vesnaver to anchor their pitching staff. Vesnaver's earned run average was 3.37 last season.

Nipomo

The last-place team in the PAC-7 in 2007 is 4-0 this year as the PAC-7 cleaned up against the LPL in the Central Coast Preseason Tournament. The LPL won one tourney game.

The Titans have shown they can hit, pitch and play defense. Matt Limon hit .667 during Nipomo's last three games. Three-year varsity veteran Mason Sperakos was at .556.

Nipomo's fourth game was an 8-1 win over Cabrillo last Thursday. Sperakos went 3-for-4 then and drove in two runs.

He, along with Joe Delfin and Andy Bachtel, forms part of a strong Nipomo three-man pitching staff.

Nipomo coach Jim Fisher said, “Our league's format, teams playing a three-game series against each other in one week, puts a premium on a strong pitching staff. You really need a solid three-man pitching rotation. We didn't have that last year.”

With Sperakos, Delfin and Bachtel, the Titans do now.

Paso Robles

The Bearcats had the league's fourth playoff seed in a tight race last year. This year, though, Paso Robles got off to a 3-0 start.

Coach Derek Stroud's squad's team earned run average was a miserly 1.33 then. J. Reynolds and Bryce Basinger were both hitting .500.

Pioneer Valley

The Panthers, like Paso Robles and Atascadero, were in the running for the 2007 league title during the last week of the regular season.

Pioneer Valley wound up with the third league playoff seed.

The Panthers went 2-1 their first three games. They have some heavy hitters, with Phillip Garcia (.600 through the early season), Edgar Enriquez (.500) and Albert Squires (.407). Joe Pugner gave the Panthers some power hitting last season, and he is back.

Matthew Cortez (1.27 earned run average) and Edgar Enriquez (2.00 ERA) have been early pitching anchors for the Panthers.

San Luis Obispo

The Tigers, at 3-0, were another early-season unbeaten PAC-7 team. San Luis Obispo struggled in league games last year and did not make the playoffs.

David Schultz went 7-for-11 for the Tigers in the early season.

March 18, 2008