Swinging into Spring: Softball Players are Excited for the New Season

As the softball season is now in play, players reveal their hopes and goals to achieve this softball season.

By: Ariana Lopez Salguero

Varsity First baseman #5 Kenzie Cantu, ‘26, feels really good about this upcoming season. Cantu says, “I feel like we have a lot of young talent on the team. There are a lot of freshmen for starters, and I feel like it’s going to be a growing year for us.”

Cantu says, “We have amazing chemistry. There are no bad terms or anything, and it’s really good.”

Cantu says that some of her goals are to, “Try to get second team EYL again, or get first team.”

“I just want to help my team as much as I can,” says Cantu.

Cantu says, “I plan to be better on my mental side when I play so that I can help my team better. I feel like having more confidence in myself when I’m up to bat or if I’m on the field.“

“I feel like it’s more chemistry within the girls. We get along a lot better than last year,” says Cantu. “All the freshman are really cool, they are not quiet or anything, so they are really cool to hang around.”

Cantu is looking forward to the game against the Central (Fresno) Grizzlies saying, “I want to get my revenge on them because we lost to them in second round playoffs.”

Cantu says that her least favorite drill is “Running drills, and sprint training.” Her favorite drills are “hitting drills” since she plays first base.

A piece of advice Cantu would give to anyone looking to play would be to “not stress about anything.”

Cantu says, “Have fun, it’s your high school season. No matter what, there are going to be growing moments and there are going to be bad moments, we all just have to grow together.”

Cantu says, “I’m excited to see how far we go in playoffs or even if we were to win EYL again for the third year in a row. I feel like that’s like one of our biggest things that we really wanna like achieve and what we’re really excited for.”

Starting Junior Varsity Shortstop #4 Julia Lima, ‘27, says, “I’m feeling pretty good about this upcoming softball season. We have a really good group of girls.”

This is Lima’s first year playing as a shortstop after playing second base last seaso. Lima says, “I really hope I can improve on that position.”

To improve as a player this year, Lima says the trick is to “learn the way shortstop is different than a second baseman.”

Lima says that the team is looking forward to playing against St. Joseph if they are able to in their upcoming tournaments. Lima says, “They were a tough team last year, so I hope that we can beat them this year.”

Lima explains the softball team’s drills and how it works. Lima says, “Practice is around two hours, so one hour is for batting in the cages. It’s a mix of different stations that our coaches set out for us. And the other hours, like, in field work, we do a lot of cuts with our outfield and different infields.”

A piece of advice that Lima would give to new or younger players to the team is to “not let the mistakes get to you, because it can really show, so just stay confident as a player so that it can help you improve.”

Ava Gonzalez, ‘28, the starting shortstop for Varsity, explains her position by saying, “It’s kind of in the middle of the infield, so I just got to cover a lot of ground.”

Gonzalez hopes to improve as an individual player by working on her confidence and becoming an overall better player and teammate for the team.

Gonzalez says that her least favorite drill is “hitting” and her favorite thing is “taking infield.”

Gonzalez advises “to go into the team being humble, to know where you place is, but to also be confident.”

Gonzalez says, “I’m most excited for the friendships, experience and opportunities that I’m getting.”

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