DVC’s head baseball coach Mike Neu has a challenge ahead when it comes to equaling the success of last year’s 35-win team that ended up No. 3 in the state.

Fourteen players from last season’s roster have transferred to four-year schools, including Tyson Edwards, David Buscovich, and Corey Conflenti, who had a batting average of .397 to go with seven homeruns and 50 RBIs. And Ryan Palsha, who now plays for the Baltimore Orioles’ minor league team.

Ending the regular season with a 29-14 record, last year’s team advanced to the state tournament after defeating West Valley 2-0 in a best of three series and San Jose in a double elimination tournament.

Although the 2009 Vikings beat Santa Ana 3-2 in their first game of the tournament, they wound up in the No. 3 spot after losing to Orange Coast and No. 1-ranked San Joaquin Delta.

But this time around, Neu is coaching a team with nearly all new starters.

“It’s going to be a lot different,” he said of his current roster.

Freshman Nick Trantola agreed: “We have a lot of young guys. There are only a few returners, and we look up to them.”

Those veterans  include pitcher Harmen Sidhu, last year’s closer; outfielder Mitch Petrak, who will start at left field  after ending last year with a .338 batting average and eight RBIs in 27 games; and pitcher Casey Goonan, who was out with an injury for the end of last season.

“It’s a new team, a new group of guys,” Petrak said, “but I feel like we’ve come together as one team.”

Ranked No. 5 in the Northern California pre-season polls, DVC won 7-4 in the first of a three-game series against Solano Wednesday. In the second game, the Vikings were defeated 8-5 at home, and will play their final game of this series today at Solano.

Solano was also in playoff contention last year and will play the Vikings again at Solano.

“It’ll be a tough [series],” coach Neu said before the first game. “They have a good team, and it will be a good matchup for us early in the year.”