Persistence pays for 12u Lady Stros at Sparkler Juniors

You can be defined by your mistakes, or you can definitely do something about them.

For the Lady Stros Elite-Jones 12u softball team, which is in its first year on the diamond and even has a player who qualifies for 10u, the bumps are inevitable when it comes to playing a demanding game at full speed. But even after a spell of three consecutive errors, the Lady Stros kept on looking for solutions and found enough to post a 7-6 victory over the Palatine Stingrays on Friday at Barnes Complex in Loveland.

That victory keeps the team in the mix in the top half of the 12u bracket at Triple Crown’s Sparkler Juniors event. They’ll face Athletics Mercado 2020 on Saturday, after the Athletics came back from a 5-2 deficit in the last inning to top EC Bullets-Mayfield, 6-5.

Anna Poss doubled to lead off the top of the fifth for the Stingrays, and wth two outs Kayln McCarthy singled her home to tie the game at 6-all. In the bottom of the fifth Paris Kimble reached on an error for the Lady Stros  — pinch runner Jerrica Keener stole second, moved to third on a groundout and came across for the winning run on a hit from Angie Morales.

“I was thinking, we got this, we’ll come back. I know my team, and we usually come back when we are down,” Morales said about her mental approach before the final swing of the game. “I had faith, and I knew I had this.”

“I tell my girls all the time, mistakes are part of the game. When you make them, learn to forget about them and move on,” said Last Stros coach Steve Jones. “If you don’t make mistakes, you can’t get better. I tell them, come out and play ball, and whatever happens, happens. It’s about the process.”

Aryana Cruz reached base three times and scored three runs for the Lady Stood; pitcher Gigi Solis had a double and two RBI, and Mackenzie Lachiusa added two RBI. Solis worked out of a two-on, no-out jam in the third without giving up a run, and a huge play came from the hustle in left fired of Karyinton Dawson, who made a diving catch to end the fourth inning and save two runs.

“I try to get on base and get in the other runners in ahead of me. My heart started going fast (when Palatine tied the game), but that makes me want to try harder,” Cruz said. “So I tried harder. And we won. Our coaches teach us to work and get better than we were before.”
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Allie Goodwin had two hits and two RBI for the Stingrays.