2023 Team Preview: Palo Alto Vikings

The Road to the California State Games begins with the 2023 California high school baseball season. With the season just around the corner, our staff has begun putting out team previews from all around the state, getting you prepared for another year of exciting coverage.

Today we focus on the Palo Alto Vikings who are coming off of a 2022 where they clinched a league title and spot in the CCS D1 finals. The Vikings have youth on their side for 2023, and they’ll hope to build the chemistry quickly for another successful season.

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Team:

Palo Alto Vikings

Head Coach (years at school):

Pete Fukuhara (10)

Twitter Handle:

@paly_baseball

CIF Section & Division:

CIF CCS D1

Conference/League Name:

Foothill

Last Year’s Record:

26-7

13-1 (League) 

2022 Playoff Run:

Lost in Final of CIF CCS D1 playoffs vs Saint Francis

# of Returning Starters:

3

# of Returning Pitchers:

5

Team Expectations:

"First goal is to win the league. Overall, our philosophy is just to play against the game and take it one day at a time."

Team Strengths:

"Defense, on base percentage (we have some guys who will be tough outs), aggressiveness on the base path, bullpen depth."

Areas of Improvement:

"We have a young team and it takes time to build chemistry."

College Commitments:

Charlie Bates, Stanford

Russ Filter, Santa Clara

Sam Papp, UC Davis

Sal Meehan, Emerson

Top Uncommitted 23s:

Tyler Mostofizadah, P/OF

Top Uncommitted 24s:

Zachary Thom, IF

Ari Smolar Eisenberg, P/1B/3B

Nate Donaker, P/OF

Carter Cegielski, P

Vinny Braga, P

Top Uncommitted 25s:

KangHee Cho, OF

Henry Harding, P

Coco VonderHaar, C

Cormac White, P

Dexter Cleveringa, C/IF

Isaiah Walker, 1B

Joey Kessler, IF

Top Uncommitted 26s:

Carter Bader

Jake Liu

Dylan Robinson