Stanton- With only one senior on their roster, Stanton’s softball team is supposed to be inexperienced and ill-equipped to compete on a high level. Try telling that to these remarkable young ladies, as they’ve reeled off four straight wins, including a 14-4 victory over St. Augustine Thursday afternoon to stay red hot this season.
It was a blue flame of hot bats as Stanton jumped out early on St. Augustine thanks to the play of juniors Marissa Munroe and Riley Woods. Munroe showed her versatility by getting RBIs in the game through base hits and laying down bunts. She would also steal bases showing her speed.
Where Munroe displayed the speed Woods would provided the power, hitting big shots into the outfield to score several runners. Her double in bottom of the third inning gave Stanton an 8-3 lead to which her team would never relinquish.
St. Augustine’s offense came from Carson Freeman, Jenna Thompson, Terralyn Esguerra, and Makinley Dowler who all scored runs for St. Augustine. They did most of their damage early, but were over powered by Stanton’s play.
For Stanton’s Coach Billy Rogers, it’s been a quick turnaround after a sudden new hire at the beginning of the season. After retiring from coaching, Rogers was asked to take over for Chris McDowell who left last year.
After a slow start losing four straight, he’s been able to get players Alexandra Roche, Annalise Luna, Binaca Opdenbosch, Catherine Price, Haley Greene, Hannah Grimes, Lillian Feagan, Makenzie Starling, Michaela Loopez and Zoe Dossey to buy into the system and work as a team. The result has been winning 8 out of 11 games, including revenge victories over Ed White and St. Augustine.
Stanton improves to 7-6 on the season and looks to improve to 8-6 when they take on Westside Monday. They are one of the hottest team in their district but still have a long way to go to catch Paxon who is 9-8-1 and 7-0 in the district. St. Augustine falls to 9-10 on the season and looks to rebound against top ranked Fleming Island next.
