As the Citrus softball field empties and the Owls wrap up their season, the players and coaches are looking forward to the upcoming season.
After a start to the season, which included a record of 4-11 after the first 15 games, the Owls turned their game around and finished the season strong with a record of 21-21. They also won seven games in a row at one point in the season.
In his second season as the Owls head coach, Terry Paredez had a lot of experience to go to even in his second year as the head coach.
“ I think the girls did well, I think it was a challenging season, we played a tough schedule.” Paredez said. We intentionally scheduled a tough schedule, which I think was honestly one of the tougher schedules in the state. I know the girls had an uphill challenge and I think the girls did a good job meeting that challenge.”
The Owls finished the season at 9-5 in conference play, along with eight players who were selected for the 2019 Western State Conference East All-Conference teams.
“I know that my girls put in a lot of work, they put in a lot of time and dedication,” Paredez said. “It’s not an easy thing to do, playing collegiate sports and maintaining jobs and GPAs and so on so I’m very proud of the girls. I know they put in a lot of effort to get the recognition that they received. I believe it was well deserved.”
Becky Winder, second year player and pitcher, was one of the eight members on the Owls to be recognized on the all-conference second team. Winder spent most of the season as the Owls starting pitcher with a team low ERA of 2.62 and team high strikeout per seven innings ratio of 2.79, along with 49 strikeouts on the year.
Winder accredited her defense behind her for the success she was able to have in the circle this year.
“Being a slower pitcher I need my defense to back me up as well because I usually just get like ground balls or fly balls and I know they help me out a lot,” Winder said.
Emily Paredez, second year third baseman, spent her second season with the Owls focused on team chemistry and her individual performance to help the team. Paredez posted a top four team batting average of .321 and two home runs along with a spot on the all-conference first team.
“I got to a point where I just broke it down, went back down to my mechanics and just worked on it and worked on it, off the field, off of practice time on my own time. I was mainly just looking for one pitch to hit and one pitch that I could drive. When I started focusing on that, the one pitch that I wanted my mentality was don’t miss it. So I went up their and it helped me out a lot,” Emily Paredez said.
As the Owls fought back to finish, they continued their fight to the playoffs against the Palomar Comets in the first round of the CCCAA SoCal Regionals.
“Going up against Palomar, we knew Palomar was a quality program. They’re a tough team, they had been ranked high all year so we knew that it was an uphill climb,” Terry Paredez said.
As a part of the uphill climb the Owls lost to the Comet in two games by a score of 4-0 in game one and 5-0 in game two. Both both games combined the owls recorded six hits in two games and no runs.
Coach Paredez said that they were able to get the hits, but they were not timed right and that affected their ability to get any sort of run going.
Even with the short lived playoff run, the Owls improved this season as they made the playoffs and hope to make it even further next season.
