GONZALES — Coming into the season, the Gonzales High School girls’ softball team was going to have a hard time replacing a main core of players that graduated last year and had been the soul of the team for the past couple of years.
Another roadblock for the Lady Spartans is that they barely had named a head coach just weeks before the season started.
As this season starts for the Spartans, they do have good young players in development, but they will need more time.
To start the season, they faced Everett Alvarez and Alisal that had a combined one loss. Gonzales lost both games 19-1 and 14-1, respectively.
The good news is the Spartans (0-2 overall) will get a week off to get some practice time before they open up with their Mission league opener against Pacific Grove on March 19.
Soledad Aztecs
Soledad Aztecs are coming off their best season in school history after being co-champs in the Cypress Division. It’s also unknown what we’ll get from the Lady Aztecs, as they replaced their coach from a year ago.
To start the season, the Lady Aztecs are 1-1 in the league (1-3 overall). Their lone win of the season came against Trinity Christian, 21-1. The Aztecs dropped their league opener to Rancho San Juan, 10-6.
The Aztecs will have two games this week, one on the road and one at home. They hosted King City on Tuesday, and then traveled to Pajaro on Thursday for another Cypress league game.
Greenfield Bruins
It wasn’t long ago that the Greenfield High girls’ softball team was competing for league titles. After being bumped up a league last season, the Lady Bruins took their lumps in a rebuilding year. This year, however, the Bruins should be better.
To start off the season, the Lady Bruins lost their first two games to King City and Alisal. Those two losses come to teams that are expecting to compete for a league title.
This week Greenfield (0-1 league, 0-2 overall) has two Cypress league games. On Monday, the Bruins traveled to Seaside, and then will host Rancho San Juan on Thursday.
King City Mustangs
King City Mustangs got off to a great start in this year’s season, going 3-1 while playing in the Mission Division.
In those four games, the Lady Mustangs were able to beat Greenfield, Marina and Templeton. Their only loss came to an Alisal team that is currently 6-1.
Despite the strong start, the Mustangs have lost their last two games. They dropped a close game to Atascadero, 6-5, and then were blanked by Ann Sobrato of Morgan Hill, 8-0.
The Lady Mustangs will need to break their losing streak, but they will have to do it on the road.
On Tuesday, King City (3-3 overall) took a trip to Soledad to face the Lady Aztecs (after press deadlines). Then, in their second game of the week, the Mustangs will face Watsonville in their Mission league opener on Friday.
