New Liberty head baseball coach Shawn McHugh has a simple message for his program: ignore the hype. While the Lions’ 6-0 start is the program’s best since 2004, McHugh is ensuring his players don’t get lost in the external chatter that comes with a sudden rise in the state rankings.

“Coach tells us all the time to block the noise out,” Liberty junior Dom Gonzalez said. “What we’re doing is huge for this program and, obviously, there’s a lot of noise around us, but we’re just keeping it silent, doing our thing and winning games.”

Wednesday’s 11-5 win against Dougherty Valley officially pushed Liberty to 6-0. It is a rare milestone for a program that had started 5-1 four different times since 2006, but hadn’t crossed the threshold to a perfect six until this spring.

“We’re all just trying to do our job and encourage the next guy to do theirs,” said Liberty junior Stevie Wellens. “It means a lot because there’s been a lot of work that’s gone into this. This is what we’ve expected and it feels good to be a part of it.”

That work has caught the attention of the state. Liberty entered Wednesday ranked third in California by MaxPreps, trailing only Southern California powerhouses Harvard-Westlake and Sherman Oaks Notre Dame. They also sit atop the “NorthCoastUpdate” power rankings. To keep that success from becoming a distraction, McHugh has asked the roster to limit their time on social media.

“The coaches talked about staying off the phones,” Wellens said. “We just keep the practices the same as they have been and we practice hard. That’s the main thing.”

If the Lions are indeed staying off their phones, they might not realize they are also the top team in the overall North Coast Section and the NCS Division 1 rankings. With the current postseason structure, those rankings play a major role in seeding and playoff divisions.

“As high school kids, it’s awesome they’re being recognized,” McHugh said. “But we’re just six games in.”

McHugh believes the best is yet to come.

“We’re 6-0, but we haven’t really hit our stride. All nine in the lineup haven’t gotten hot yet together,” he said. “We’re not chasing games, we’re chasing innings. We’re trying to get them to be narrow-minded so that we can learn how to win moments.”

Gonzalez was the catalyst on Wednesday, driving in seven runs with a sacrifice fly, a bases-clearing triple, and a bases-clearing double. His production helped pick up starting pitcher Jake Farr, who allowed four runs (one earned) in two-plus innings on the mound. He was pulled in the third with no outs after allowing the first four batters of the inning to reach base, along with giving up the, then-game-tying run. 

The bullpen stabilized the game from there, as Cam Ulrich and Hunter Young combined to allow just one run on two hits for the remaining five innings of the game.

Liberty now faces a tough stretch through the next four games, starting Friday against Tracy before a top-two NCS showdown against College Park on Saturday, March 28.