REDMOND – All the necessary pieces are there for the Ridgeview baseball team to repeat as Intermountain Conference champions and make another deep run into the postseason.

The Ravens return seven all-league players – including all three of their first-teamers and all three of their second-teamers from last season – and talented younger players that have already made an impact on the field.

But most importantly, the Ravens have continued to build the right mindset needed to climb to the top of the conference and compete for state titles.

“We know that we can compete with everybody,” said senior Logan Nakamura, who has signed on to play baseball at the University of Portland next year. “We expect to win every game we play. It has been a good start, but we are looking to do even better.”

So perhaps it isn’t a surprise that the Ravens feel as though they are further along at this point of the season compared to the similar point a year ago.

“I feel like we are ahead of where we were last year,” said Ridgeview coach Shane Nakamura, last year’s IMC Coach of the Year. “The boys were really good about working hard in the offseason and building confidence. We didn’t get to play our first game until we were down in Arizona and I thought that we competed really well.”

Ridgeview is 5-2 this season, including a five-game winning streak that started at the Coach Bob Invitational in Arizona during spring break.

Since 2021, the Ravens have seen their season win total rise exponentially. Ridgeview won just three of its 17 games in 2021, then won 15 games and nearly made the playoffs in 2022. The Ravens eclipsed 20 wins and reached the 5A state quarterfinals in 2023, then won a program-high 24 games in 2024 and reached the state semifinals.

“I thank the upperclassmen that I had when I was young for teaching us, showing Ridgeview really, how to win,” Logan Nakamura said. “We haven’t had that in the past. We haven’t really been a winning program in the past. We’ve been wanting to show the community that Ridgeview is not a joke.”

And the team the Ravens have coming back is certainly no joke. It is serious. Nearly the entire infield is returning all-league players. Nakamura (first-team infielder) and sophomore Diego Lopez (second-team infielder) are the key pieces in the middle. Senior Jackson Hertel at third base was a first-teamer and senior Olen Nofziger was a second-team catcher a year ago.

“I feel really, really confident with that set of guys,” Shane Nakamura said. “IF we can keep our focus, I think we will be pretty well off.”

Finn Chambers proved to be one of the IMC’s best pitchers in his freshman year, earning first-team all-league honors and all-state honorable mention. Add Logan Nakamura, a second-team IMC pitcher a year ago, and the Ravens have a formidable one-two punch on the mound.

IMC play begins next Tuesday, and it is a blockbuster of a matchup between two teams that reached the 5A semifinals last season. Summit and Ridgeview will play three times next week.

The Ravens got the best of the Storm a year ago, winning two of three games to help clinch the IMC championship. And the Ravens aren’t ready to give up that title just yet.

“I’m super excited about this matchup,” Logan Nakamura said. “I’m excited to get league started and (Summit) might be the toughest team. We are just going to take it one game and one pitch at a time and hopefully we can come out on top after it is all said and done.”