The Coronado High School softball team fell to Olympian High School 3-0 in the first round of the CIF San Diego Section playoffs on May 20, ending the girls’ season. The Islanders finished 11-14 overall and 4-2 in city league play, good enough to earn them a playoff berth.
Coach Tom Dull emphasized that his passion for coaching goes beyond results on the scoreboard. He values the game most for the life lessons it imparts to his players, both on and off the field.
“As a coaching staff, we believe our job is to promote ideals such as teamwork, friendships, resiliency, accountability, commitment, school-life balance, self-advocacy and teaching each player how to deal with both success and failure,” Dull said. “I love watching players grow not just as athletes but as young adults.”
According to Dull, this is a team built on and around pitching. Senior captain Ali Pecus led the team in numerous categories with 97.1 innings pitched, a 2.03 ERA, and 100 strikeouts.
Dull said throughout the season he would tell the girls, “‘We are never worried about one run,’ because I believed in our defense and pitching,” he explained, “and knew we were capable of scoring runs in bunches.”
Although the Islanders started the season with only 20 players in the program across junior varsity and varsity, they were still able to tally enough wins to make the postseason. Dull explained that the team’s togetherness was crucial to their ability to move players around to different positions in order to mask their depth issues.
“Being united allowed us to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses very well, and know how to play next to each other, which gives us flexibility (to) move players around. We had two sets of sisters, cousins, and girls that have played together for 10 years,” Dull said.
Outside of their camaraderie, sophomore shortstop Sammy Aldworth led the team in nearly every major offensive statistical category (hits, runs, RBI, doubles, home runs). Her slash line was best on the team as well, as she posted a .457/.477/.815, good for a scalding hot 1.292 OPS.
Although the Islander’s one-two punch of Aldworth and Pecus was not enough to defeat Olympian on May 20, Dull recounted the leadership and the example set by his older players – something he believes was critical to their success.
“Senior captains Cali Smith (and) Parker Thompson were tremendous leaders of this team from the very start,” he said. “These captains were able to take three freshmen – Jersey Cunningham, Logan Munoz, Maren Thompson – and seamlessly integrate them into the program and make them valuable contributing members of the team.”
