Although the Lady Yankees had a rough start to the season, they battled through the challenges and started their league season beating Fairfax 7-1. Unfortunately, they then took a heartbreaking 3-6 loss against Palisades. This caused a spark in the Lady Yankees, though, inspiring them to run through teams like Westchester, University, LACES, and Bell.

Losses to Palisades and Venice landed them in 3rd place in the Western League. The 10-8 Yankees faced off against the number one ranked Los Angeles City Section Division 2 team, the 16-8 Verdugo Hills, leading to a first-round exit for the Lady Yankees. 

“I think during our playoff game, we worked as hard as we could, but fell short during the end of the game,” Freshman utility player Samantha Moreno reflected. Samantha said the team had trouble “managing our energy throughout the game but still everyone did amazing.”

As the Lady Yankees fought through their season, they relied on the 11th-grade pitcher Samantha Peralta to lead their defense. Leading the team in batting average was senior hitter Rocio Rodriguez, with a towering .395 batting average and an on-base percentage of .430, totaling 45 hits, 19 runs batted in, and 35 total runs to end off her senior year.

Overall, the Lady Yankees said the season was enjoyable.

“The season was very fun and it was cool being able to travel to different schools,” said 3rd base player Kalia Vargas, a junior. “Our bond has increased a lot. We have been able to make new connections with the freshmen and help them adjust to the environment of playing softball in a high school team. ” 

This is good news for the Lady Yankees and the future of the program and their bond with their coach. Samantha Moreno stated, “Since Coach Derrick is new to varsity, we’ve been able to build more bonds with our coach, and he’s been there for each of us. When the team had a problem, he was there to sort the team’s problems.”

It is amazing for the program to see such a diverse group of players who didn’t start as they wanted to yet ended up coming together to be the team they wanted to be from the start of the season.