Miramonte High's baseball program jumped from 9-16 to 16-9 in one season under first-year head coach Steve Hammond, in his debut spring 2026 campaign. The Orinda school also improved from 5-5 to 7-2 in league play.

Hammond, a 1999 Alhambra High School graduate who pitched at Long Beach State and was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the sixth round in 2005, spent two years in Class AAA and later played professionally in China, Japan and Mexico before coaching at Diablo Valley College. Miramonte named him head coach Sept. 15, 2025, according to the school's athletics site.

Hammond replaced nearly the entire coaching staff across all three levels of the program, with the program's three levels combining to finish with a winning record, The Mirador's Dylan Kan reported. The previous season, the Matadors went 9-16 overall and 5-5 in league.

Hammond told The Mirador that assembling the staff was the hardest part of his first year. He had to juggle practice schedules for three teams while making sure every player got quality work.

"Last season was a huge success across the board," Hammond said. "We all established a good culture, and we had a winning record across our program, and I think it's just a matter of continuing to build on what we started in year one."

The turnaround leaned on more than new coaches. Hammond founded Bay Area Ballplayers, an indoor training facility at 1460-H Moraga Road in Moraga, in 2019, where he had already spent six years coaching local youth players before taking the Miramonte job. The Matadors use the space for batting cages, pitching mounds and metrics tracking, measuring exit velocity and sprint speed for individual players.

Senior pitcher Alex Heath said the coaching staff prioritized arm health and overall physicality. On rainy days and during winter preseason, the team trained at the Moraga facility instead of losing practice time. Heath also pointed to a shift in dugout culture, describing louder energy and what he called "respectful chirps" during games.

Hammond said developing team captains is a priority heading into the new season. The Matadors had few seniors on last year's roster. Hammond said he wants both seniors and underclassmen to step into leadership roles.

Miramonte opens the season against Bishop O'Dowd on the road Feb. 24, 2027, according to MaxPreps' schedule. Hammond told The Mirador the Matadors face one of their harder schedules in recent memory, with Junipero Serra and Alhambra High School, his alma mater, also on the slate.