The young Lady Spartans look forward to a strong season. photo by Adna Adrovic
An early loss turns into gained confidence for the Lady Spartans.
On Friday September 4, the Lady Spartans’ loss to the Valor Christian Eagles, 21-7, showed the fighting spirit of our TJ Softball players. The Eagles were last year’s state champs in the 4A class. Before this matchup, no team had scored on them the whole season. This changed when the Lady Spartans not only scored on them, but took the lead in the second inning. In the first two innings the two teams were going back and forth, when TJ took the 6-3 lead. Valor was not expecting TJ to give them a run for their money, after having dominated last season.
With a couple of bunts in the infield, the runners had a chance to get around the bases. A big hit by sophomore pitcher Zoya Robbins allowed two runs to come in which built up the score. Sophomore Sydney Thompson explained how this game was different from last year’s: “This game we fought back, we played much harder than we did last year.” The will to fight back gave them the chance to actually put runs on the scoreboard. Robbins emphasized the fact that TJ doesn’t like to back down from any opponent, so they went out there and played with their hearts, without paying attention to the scoreboard. The girls helped each other keep their heads up and proved they could play well.
Both Robbins and Thompson went through some mental challenges during the game, but after their teammates lifted their confidence back up, they were playing at an exceptional level. Robbins pointed out that freshman Jaelyn Jackson, although quiet, helped her get through the game with her positive words. In the fourth inning, Jackson actually took over the pitching and showed her skill set and proved that TJ is stacked in every position.
“This game, instead of destroying TJ softball’s confidence, brought us up to a whole new level, even with a loss,” explained Robbins. Thompson agreed and added, “My team has improved since the last time we played Valor and now I know what I need to work on based off of this game.” As the team expects the rest of the season to be successful with a record of 6-1 so far, the softball team is excited for the rest of season to get into full swing.
