The Lady Dons softball team started off their season with a bang. On Tues., Feb. 26, the Dons beat Kings Academy 13-3.
The Dons seemed a bit shaky when the game first started. Kings Academy threatened to score in the top of the first inning when the first three players all hit singles. However, freshman pitcher Sophia Cerreta struck out the next two batters. With two outs and the bases loaded, Ceretta managed to get the sixth batter to ground out to first base. Then, the Dons proceeded to score 11 runs in the bottom of the first. They took advantage of multiple hits, passed balls, walks, and errors to achieve their eight runs.
Kings Academy responded by stringing three hits in a row and scoring three runs in the next inning, but it was all that they could muster against the Dons. Pitchers Sophia Ceretta, Sarah Nelson and Jessie Doss shut down Kings Academy for the rest of the game.
The Dons scored twice more in the third inning, running the score up to 13-3. By the time the fourth inning rolled around, the umpires called the game due to the mercy rule, which is when a team beats another team by ten or more runs.
Pitcher Cerreta had a good game, both defensively and offensively. She started the game pitching and managed to escape a no out bases loaded jam in the top of the first inning. On offense, she hit a grand slam, contributing to four of the Don’s thirteen.
This big win will help the Dons transition into the new season. After five years of coaching, the former coach Bill Laskey decided to retire from coaching. Coach Joe Sparaco has stepped into the new coaching position this season.
Sparaco is immensely experienced, having coached for over 35 years. He was the assistant varsity coach at Palo Alto High School and head frosh-soph coach at Menlo Atherton prior to taking this job. He says, “I love coaching and teaching kids to play all kinds of sports, and thought this would be a challenge because of the great coach they had just lost. I love the kids and coach for the love of the game, hoping to leave a positive lifetime legacy of sportsmanship, citizenship, and character building our young players. I love this team and have a tremendous respect for the young ladies of the team. I am hoping for a very successful season at Aragon.”
Senior Kaylyn Mejasich says, “Softball this year is much better than two years ago… Soon we will become a family.”
In order to prepare the Dons for the season ahead, Sparacco says, “We do drills every day to make us a faster team. We move our feet in a positive direction and train ourselves to never make a negative movement away from our anticipated target. We do a lot of running, hitting, and work on defense. These drills make us very dangerous to our opponents.”
The strength of the team is the balance of talent amongst players. Sparaco says, “I put the most aggressive players up first and play the girls defensively according to their strengths. We don’t really have any weak players on our team, so when I replace somebody, I can feel confident that making a change doesn’t weaken our team in any significant way.”
The Don’s lineup will be tested against the rival Hillsdale Knights. Mejasich says, “Hillsdale will be the hardest team we will face this year. Not only are they our rivals, but they force us to bring our game to another level. I’m looking forward to the big game against Hillsdale because it’s going to be a good competitive game.”
Mejasich also looks forward to the Hillsdale game, saying, “That game will be our senior night game, and we have been playing with most of the Hillsdale girls since we were eight years old.”
However, the Dons must take the season one game at a time. Sparaco says, “Every game is played with the anticipation of winning, and being fully prepared gives us courage to face anybody who steps onto our field to play us. We’re not afraid of anybody!”
