Lady Trojans prepare for return to the diamond

The Lady Trojans softball team is dusting off the bats and gloves and getting ready for the season to start.

Trojans coach Eli Armendariz is hopeful that the girls can turn things around this year to do better than their 7-7 fifth place finish last year, but there are a lot of questions that still need to be answered.

To start, the Trojans lost a few senior pitchers last year and hope to fill that position with sophomore Amaya Mendoza.

Armendariz feels Mendoza should be maturing and should be faster this year. She is the most sound and experienced pitcher the team has. Mendoza did pitch a majority of the games last year and gained valuable experience as a freshman varsity player. She was able to get the ball over the plate with extreme accuracy.

Armendariz has other talented pitchers to choose from too, junior Leanne Kaiwi, along with junior Krista Toomer and another freshman, Arianna Sandoval.

The problem the Trojans had last year, according to the coach, was their defense. How good the infield defense is could determine if this team is just rebuilding or headed for the playoffs.

This year the girls have senior Lauren Koenig returning to the field at first base.

One question is, will the girls be able to field a solid shortstop and catcher? Junior Jill Smith played shortstop and is out with a knee injury. Junior Jordan Egan, a fine catcher, has shoulder issues but will be hitting as the DH.

Then there is the question of the outfield. Armendariz graduated all his outfielders last year and said he has one returning outfielder, senior Andi Bishop.

The coach said his staff is solid this year with Susan Toomer returning and new addition Sara Coleman will be the new junior varsity coach.

Coleman was a member of the 2003 state championship team and was 2-1 as a pitcher at state and that year was pitcher of the year.

-Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com