Jim Waller knows his team can hit a baseball.

He’s seen it during practice. He’s seen it during the summer.

Now he hopes to see hitting during the 2005 high school season — something he witnessed little of during 2004.

“The kids last year were good hitters,” Waller said. “I think it was more of a fluke than anything else. I really can’t see that happening again.”

Struggles at the plate resulted in a 3-12 record in the WesCo North and a 5-14 record overall.

Despite its woes of 2004, Oak Harbor has all the potential in the world to turn things around this season.

Seniors Jake Jansen and Bryce Waller are a great start. Both bring big bodies and powerful swings with the potential to hit one out of the park on any occasion. Jansen, a first-baseman/designated hitter, stands at 6-foot-3, 250-plus pounds and Waller, a first-baseman/designated hitter, stands at 6-foot-4, 250-plus pounds.

“They give us some pretty big pop,” coach Waller said.

Jansen also led the team in batting average at .305.

Two others who should help significantly are senior Camden Schutte, who batted .289 and sophomore Marshall Lobbestael, who hit .300 as a freshman.

Those four players, however, are the only returning varsity members from last year.

Others expected to step it up this year will be Cameron Kays, Tyson Boon, Mark Radach, Mike Bighouse, Matt Lambert, Chris Royce, David Squier, Brendan Kays and Trace Mead.

Waller saw good things from all of the aforementioned players in the summer as the Oak Harbor Legion AA team came up just shy of making its second straight and second ever appearance in the Legion state tournament.

One question mark that exists this season comes at the mound where the Wildcats only return one starting pitcher from last year in Schutte.

“As you know pitching is the name of the game,” Waller said. “We’ll need some guys to step up.”

Team speed for running the bases and on defense are also a worry of Wallers.

“The team speed concerns me the most,” he said. “They’ll catch the balls hit to them, it’s just getting to the balls not hit right to them.”

As usual the Wildcats will see tough competition in the WesCo North with Snohomish and Marysville-Pilchuck expected to provide the most difficult challenges.

“Snohomish has a lot of kids back — to me they’d be the preseason favorite,” Waller said.

Marysville has a couple of NCAA Division I prospect pitchers, including Luke Hauglin, who already committed to the University of Washington.

Even with a tough league Waller sees his team finishing better than last year, maybe even a top four finish and a district playoff spot.

“I think that’s a real possibility,” he said. “I think we’ll surprise a few teams this year.”

Oak Harbor begins its season with a jamboree, Saturday, March 19 at South Whidbey High School and hosts non-league Anacortes, Tuesday, March 22 for the first game of the season.