On the last day of school before spring break, Steinbrenner’s softball team competed against Land O’ Lakes high school which unfortunately concluded in a gloomy ending.  

The game was intense with the crowd full of high-spirited supporters composed of friends, family, and teachers of the players. The first inning was uneventful. The game peaked for the warriors during the second innings when Hailey Bellamy hit a homerun, making the environment in the field electric. Lily Patton gave an impressive performance with her pitching. Overall, the warriors had a fierce game with their main obstruction being the severe weather. The day started out with a light shade progressing into heavy gusts that affect a huge portion of the game. 

When asked about the game two of the first-year players, Patton and Fortenberry, shared their thoughts. 

Softball Warrior Lily Patton said, “I think we did well. We lacked hits, but overall, we did particularly good. We had good teamwork, it was a good game, I am just upset that it got cut short.”  

Freshman Warrior Jenna Fortenberry said, “I thought we had a great game. But we could have made some better plays in the field.” They each had their own take on individual skills they could improve for the next game. “Personally, I would work on hitting the change up,” said Fortenberry. 

Patton placed more of an emphasis on batting saying, “A skill is probably learning to read a batter, and figure out what pitch to throw, and when to throw and how to throw it, which I am not terrible at, but could definitely use some work.” 

The weather, which played a huge role in the players’ performance, was something both had an opinion on. 

Warrior Fortenberry claimed, “It started raining towards the end of the game. I believe the top of the seventh. We could have come back or made the score closer if we could have played the rest of the game because we ended the last inning with bases loaded. And we were all ready to come back.”  

Freshman Patton claimed, “In the beginning it was not terrible. Dark, cloudy, nobody really expected it to rain that hard, but the rain made it harder to throw, catch, and just focus on what you were doing, so it did not really help us.”  

Their favorite moment of the game, however, was consistent between both highlighting Bellamy’s fantastic homerun. 

Fortenberry said, “my favorite moment in the game. It was when Hailey Bellamy hit a home run to start us off. The people before her were struggling a little bit and she did her job and picked them up and started the game off for us.”  

Warrior Patton claimed, “My favorite moment was when Hailey Bellamy, one of our seniors, hit a home run dead center. That really started the game. That was exciting, it feels like the whole team was good for her, really excited for her. This is her senior year, so I am going to be really upset when she is not here next year, but it was a good point of the year.” 

The game ended during the sixth innings due to a heavy downpour, squashing any hope of recovery for the warriors and ending in their loss. They delivered a great game despite the obstruction and look forward to improving in the future.