The Coronado High School softball team has put the final touches on their 2024 campaign, ending their season with a 6-1 loss to Sage Creek High School in round 1 of the CIF San Diego Section playoffs on May 15.
Although their year came to a close with a loss, the Islanders improved their record from 2-19-1 (0-9 City Eastern) in 2023 to 15-8-1 (7-2-1 City Eastern) and a playoff berth in 2024.
Tom Dull, the head coach, said that he credits that tough year in 2023 for seasoning the team and preparing them mentally.
“As you know last year was a tough year for us only winning two games, but I absolutely believe it was the adversity of last year that built our resiliency this year.”
“…last year was a tough year for us only winning two games, but I absolutely believe it was the adversity of last year that built our resiliency this year.”
Tom Dull, Head Softball Coach at Coronado High School
On top of the character building adversity that he believes helped mature this team, Dull said he was the most proud of this team for their continued tenacity throughout the year.
He described their resiliency through their third game of the season against La Costa Canyon High School. After getting behind by nine runs in the first inning, Dull said the team played hard and never quit.
“If you walked up to the field after the first inning you wouldn’t have known we were down,” Dull said. “We only surrendered one more run over the next six innings and after that game, I knew we had a special team.”
The team’s fighting spirit showed in the box score this year, as the offense was consistently a statistically impressive bunch.
The 2024 squad was led by seniors Isabel Castellanos, a utility player, catcher and designated hitter Lucy Kenny, pitcher Sophie Kenny, shortstop Susanna Pate and utility player Darin Verano.
Collectively, the five seniors hit .378 with a 1.030 On-base Plus Slugging (OPS), a formulaic metric used to quantify how well a hitter can both reach base and the rate at which they accumulate bases (i.e. a double is worth more than a single). They were only shut out twice, and scored 194 runs in 20 games.
Senior shortstop Susanna Pate led the way with a .483/.622/.851 slash line. In terms of counting stats, she added four home runs, 11 stolen bases, and 33 hits in the season. Freshman catcher and outfielder Vida Sanchez led the team with 30 RBI (runs batted in) and was second on the team with 28 hits.
Coronado also had effective pitching throughout the course of the season, with senior Sophia Kenny leading the team with a 1.63 earned run average (ERA) in 30 innings pitched (IP).
Junior Ali Pecus led the team in innings pitched with 73.1, throwing over 1300 pitches in 17 appearances and logging a 4.68 ERA.
