Dons baseball beats Westmoor
Last Thursday’s home victory against Westmoor had a scary ending. With two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, senior Greg Lyons hit a ground ball to short. When the Westmoor first baseman reached for the ball, he and Lyons collided and both players fell to the ground.
Lyons emerged with only bumps and bruises, but the Westmoor player was on the ground for almost fifteen minutes before getting carted off. No official diagnosis was given, but the player was sitting up and talking. The game was called after the play and the Dons won 5-1.
Junior Aldo Severson was the starting pitcher and allowed only one hit through 4 innings. Severson also went two for three at the plate. “Just another normal day,” he joked after the game.
Severson, led the pitching crew in strikeouts last year as a sophomore. This year, he has pitched extremely well, with a complete game shutout against Terra Nova on March 10, and a one-hitter against Mills on March 20.
Last year, Aragon struggled with an overall record of 9-16-2 and a league record of 3-11. The team finished last in the Bay division, and moved down to the Ocean division for this season. However, as of April 26, they have a 9-8 overall record, with a 4-3 league record. They are currently in fourth place and a game and a half behind division leading Woodside.
Other than the division switch, head coach Lenny Souza believes the team’s improved maturity level has helped boost their place in the standings. He also says, “This group is very capable of high achievement when they play the game to their capability, and it shows with results.”
Centerfielder Davarian Redd, a senior, says “We were a little shaky at first, but now we’re starting to play together as a team.”
Junior pitcher Joe Roias agrees, saying, “We’ve had a lot of ups and downs, but we have been stepping it up over the last few games.
The Dons have ten more games remaining in the regular season, and are still trying for CCS. Roias says, “We’re planning to keep playing in CCS this year.”
Lady Dons make a comeback against Capuchino 7-6
The Dons came from behind to snap their three game losing streak with a 7-6 victory over Capuchino. The Dons were down 6-3 to start the bottom of the sixth inning, tied the game after a rally led by back-to-back triples from senior Brooke Ramsey and senior Elena Bowman. After a sacrifice fly from freshmen Jessica Doss, the Dons led by one, and held on to win in the top of the seventh inning.
After the game, Bowman said, “It feels really good to come through for the team, and I feel like we can carry this momentum throughout the season.”
Senior Maureen Duddy said, “We just needed one game like this to get us going. Today it wasn’t just one player that got us the win, it was everybody.”
This year, the softball team has a 6-12 record and is in sixth place. Bill Laskey, the head coach, says, “We started the season very slowly; we played very good softball and we’re 6-12.”
Laskey was a starting pitcher for the San Francisco Giants from 1981-1986, and is currently an analyst for CSN Bay Area, the Giants network. He also does private lessons and helps out with the Aragon Baseball team. This year is Laskey’s fifth year coaching softball at Aragon.
Bowman had two of the team’s four home runs last year, and hit .413. Duddy, also a senior, had a home run and hit .449. Duddy is continuing her great play this year with a .561 batting average.
The most formidable team in the Bay division this year is Carlmont, with an overall record of 10-1 and a league record of 2-0. Laskey says, “Carlmont gets 40 or 50 girls trying out every year, due to the great feeder system in San Carlos.” In San Mateo, the softball players are divided into San Mateo, Hillsdale and Aragon, but most of the San Carlos players play at Carlmont.
Laskey was frustrated with the disappointing turnout of players this year. He says, “It’s sad that not as many girls try out considering all of the talent here at Aragon.” Normally there are 25 or 30 girls trying out every year, but this year there were less than 20 girls trying out.
Laskey believes that the surprisingly small turnout was due to girls playing other sports instead and lack of a strong feeder system. Because of that, Laskey says, “I am considering leaving Aragon after this year. Not because of the school, but because there aren’t enough girls willing to play.”
Still, the Dons look to finish out the remaining games strong. The team will take on rival Hillsdale next Friday, May 4, at Chanteloup Field.
