JV softball rising with push from coach and Lancer grad, Alex Aburto

by Kennedi Ambush, Reporter
May 2, 2016

Coach Alex Aburto

Aburto graduated from Linganore, and continued her softball and educational career at Limestone University. She transferred to Limestone for her junior and senior year, after attending Frederick Community College.

At Linganore, she earned four varsity letters in softball, along with three in volleyball. She was named First Team All-Area, First Team All-Conference, and Second Team All-Conference during her high school career. She helped lead her team to a 16-4 record and a Conference and Regional Championship her senior year.

Aburto brought lots of different qualities to the field. She excelled in being a lefty slapper, always taking advantage of her speed on the bases and at bat.

She played for Limestone for two years: 2011 and 2012. In 2011, she appeared in all 55 games, spending a majority of her time at shortstop and batting 8th in the line up.

At FCC she played in 22 games and had 55 at bats. In those at bats she had four RBI’s, 15 hits, two doubles and triple, she earned seven runs, and her batting average was a .273.

Softball is sweeping the competition, creating a next generation of winners for the softball dynasty. What does the future hold for them as they take over the Varsity in the next couple years? Currently as of May 2, the JV team is 9-0.

The team is built with many leaders and have strengths on both offense and defense.

They are lead by Coach Alex Aburto, a former Lancer and a graduate of Limestone College where she played short stop for 2 years (See sidebar). With a coach as experienced as Aburto, attributes many victories with her help. Ms. Jessica Dillon, science teacher, is the assistant coach.

The players themselves have potential, making Aburto’s decisions about who to put on the field and in the batting line up difficult.

This year Coach Aburto filled her team with 15 players, nine freshman and six returning sophomores.

The nine freshmen are Megan Blanchard (outfielder), Lauren Bigelow (middle infielder), Emily Day (catcher/outfielder), Makayla Glock (third baseman), Sam Everett (outfielder), Courtney Larrick (first baseman), MaKenzie Llewellyn (outfielder), Summer McClellan (pitcher/outfielder) and Annabelle Stone (outfielder).

They join the six returning sophomores Logan Breidenstein, Mikayla McFarland, Kaitlyn Naill, Carolyn Payne, and Lindsey Thomas, and a new sophomore addition Claire Niggle (third baseman).

Kaitlyn Naill, returning pitcher, struggled last year from a shoulder injury. The team heavily relied on their back-up pitcher, Carolyn Payne.

A recovered Naill started off this season strong. She lead the girls to a 23-4 victory against Brunswick and an 18-1 win against Walkersville.

Not only does Naill have a good arm, her bat is right there, too. A pitcher who can hit well is hard to find.

Along with Naill, Breidenstein brings power to this team as well. She is a strong first baseman and a threat to other teams in the batting line up. Last year she had 2 home runs.

These ladies have some very big shoes to fill. For the past five years the varsity team has gone to the state tournament four times.

Offensively, the JV squad will do well. They have lots of threats on offense. They have lots of speed and power, and offense is a huge part of winning games.

There are more key players to this JV team: freshman MaKenzie Llewellyn and Sam Everett take control in the outfield and cover as much area as they can.

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