St. Paul softball: young and getting better
St. Paul’s Hannah Moreno (4) hits a home run as they play St. Joseph in their varsity girls league softball game at St. Paul High School in Santa Fe Springs. St. Paul defeated St. Joseph 19-0. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)
SANTA FE SPRINGS – After graduating a senior-laden team in 2021, the St. Paul High School Softball team is loaded with underclassmen this season and is coming together after entering the Del Rey League competition this past week.
With only one senior on the 2022 edition of Swordsmen Softball, the starting nine consists of three juniors, five sophomores and one freshman.
Three returners were All-League last year – junior outfielder Gaby Gandara (1st team), junior second baseman Madi Gasca-Reyes (2nd team) and sophomore shortstop Hannah Moreno (2nd team).
Last years’ team graduated six seniors, four of which were All-Del Rey League First Team and moved on to college and universities to continue their softball careers.
Kat Serna is at Iowa, Jordin King is playing for New Mexico State, Jayne Sepulveda is at Utah and Destiny Salamanca plays for St. Martins in Washington State.
This years’ team recently had a two-game explosion of hits and runs, as they thoroughly dominated St. Joseph in a tournament game, 19-3, (Saturday March 12) and the opening game of League, 19-0, on Tuesday (March 15).
The two games totaled 38 runs and 31 hits.
With the win, St. Paul improves to 8-6 overall and 1-0 in league. (Results from Thursday’s game against St. Anthony were not available at press time).
“This was the first league game of the season and it was a home game and they were pretty excited,” St. Paul coach Charles Gandara said. “This being the second phase of the season and they came out with intensity and ready to play, and came out swinging and playing defense and overall, it was a really good game.”
‘Came out swinging’ was an understatement, as the Swordsmen accounted for 16 hits in the five-inning game.
Leading the hit parade were two players with three hits each – sophomore third baseman Hannah Moreno (3-4, 3 R, 6 RBIs) and sophomore first baseman Andrea Tellez (3-3, 2 R, RBI, Dbl.).
Moreno had two home runs and a triple.
“I feel pretty good about (Tuesday’s) game, but I know I have more potential and I could do better,” Moreno said. “I was successful because I got my hands to the ball and I stood on top of it.
“I think my team is pretty good and we’re able to work together and get along well. I need to be able to be a leader and I’m going to try my best to help the team be as one so we can get the “W”.
Moreno, who had a pair of 3-run home runs, was complementary of her two teammates in the infield.
“I think our strongest players would have to be our two middle infielders,” said Moreno, of freshman shortstop Kailee Mejia (1-4, 2 R, RBI) and Gasca-Reyes (2-4, 3 R, 2 RBIs, HR). “Because they really take charge on the field.”
Moreno also credited her coaches – Gandara, Lovie Lopez, Natalie Sharp and Danielle Munoz – for their hard work.
“I think my coaches are really good coaches,” she said. “They really get along with the team and they are very cooperative.”
Tellez, who scored the first run of the six-run second inning, knew the importance of the players at bats in the game with the first pitch.
“Our approach at the plate, we did good, attacking the first pitch and the defense, we did really good,” she said. “Our outfielders dove and marked their territory great and communication was key.”
Tellez was no doubt referring to a key diving catch by Brooke Camacho in centerfield.
St. Joseph only had two base runners (two hit batters) through the first three innings and a double in the fourth inning and was threatening to score a run.
Camacho preserved the shutout by diving for a ball for the second out of the inning, holding the runner on second.
Senior right fielder Victoria Bravo then caught the third out to end the threat and freshman reliever Natalia Morfin (three strikeouts), who came in to pitch in the third inning, retired the side in the fifth to end the game.
Starter Abby Duarte went the first two innings and struck out three batters and didn’t allow a hit.
“Key highlights were Hannah’s first bomb (home run) and then Madi (Gasca-Reyes) came up with the back-to-back homer in the (second) inning,” Tellez added. “We have a great team and honestly our bats are going to get us there to wins.”
The Lady Swordsmen opened the game with eight runs in the first inning, bringing 13 batters to the plate.
Highlighting the inning were three doubles in the inning by Gandara, Moreno and starting right fielder Jenessa Hindson (1-2, R, 2 RBIs).
St. Paul had seven extra base hits in the game.
After the six-run second, the Swordsmen added four more in the third and one in the fourth.
The four runs came after two outs in the inning, highlighted by Moreno’s three-run home run.
Also with multiple hits in the game was sophomore Bella Garcia (2-3, R, RBI) with two singles.
Coach Gandara highlighted some of the top players of the game.
“The bright spots of the game offensively were Hannah Moreno and Andrea Tellez hit the ball really well,” he said. “And seeing freshman Natalia Morfin come in the game and finish it off with three solid innings. It was her first real opportunity she’s had to get in a game and she looked real good.
“We’re still a young team, with the score 19-0, was pretty deceptive because we still made a lot of mental mistakes and base running mistakes,” he added. “It didn’t hurt us in this game because we were able to string some hits together.
“There are still things that we need to work on and get better, especially when we start facing tougher teams as we get deeper in league.”
The next league game is Tuesday (March 22) at home against Bishop Amat.