The baseball team this season has gotten off to a rocky start and is still searching for a club that will be able to take the lead early on, combined with pitching that will keep runs to a minimum throughout the entire game.

In the first 12 games for the Comets they have a run differential of minus 79 and experienced a 10-game losing streak in the preseason so far.

CCC has played a strong preseason schedule against good ball clubs like Modesto Junior College, Sierra College and Sacramento City College.

With a team of mostly freshman, one problem seems to be a lack of leadership for one person to step up to be a commanding leader.

“We need to push ourselves a lot more, to do more each day and work on more situational scenarios with pitching and hitting. Instead of loading up the count, we should be able to get runners on base earlier on in our at-bats,” sophomore pitcher Jake Dent said.

The Comets are hoping to improve on last year’s total of 11 wins. Dent said one goal that he has is being able to pitch for a full nine innings.

Additionally, he’s working on increasing the velocity of his pitches, and closely studies people like Giants’ lefty Madison Bumgarner, by paying attention to what pitches he throws in specific counts, and how he pitches each batter individually.

The Comet offense has scored a mere 51 runs in their last 11 contests.

Two missing components of last season’s heavy-hitting lineup are powerhouse bash brothers Johnny Velasco and Evan Whitfield, who significantly contributed to the overall slugging percentage of that team.

Currently they are attending Menlo College in Atherton, where they both play National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) baseball.

“They are working on being more aggressive at the plate. They want to prove that they can play at that level,” CCC coach Brian Guinn said.

With College of Marin and Yuba College in first place in the Bay Valley College and CCC in last thus far, the Comets have plenty of work ahead of them to get into playoff territory.

Right fielder Dylan Wilson said they are going to take practice more seriously, so it will transfer over into their games. He said they sometimes have trouble executing routine plays.

Wilson said that the pitchers need to condition themselves so they have more stamina to pitch deeper into the games.

“We need to set the bar higher, and then when we’re playing at our fullest potential we will win more games,” he said.

BVC play will begin for CCC in under two weeks. The first BVC game is scheduled for March 13 against the Mariners at Sonoma State University at 2:30 p.m.