Spring sports teams including girls’ lacrosse, baseball and softball were invited to a news day at Pike & Rose shopping center on May 26. Tents, cameras and crowds alongside Pitch reporter Andrew Plotnick surrounded the teams.
Both lacrosse and softball won the regional championship for the 2023 spring season. Although baseball did not win, they made it to the regional finals but could not pull out a win against the Whitman Vikings. Overall, this spring season was very successful for WJ athletics.
The lacrosse team has had a big change this year that might have led to their victories this season. New head coach Christina Fitzpatrick has greatly impacted the girls’ varsity team. She led the team to a very successful season and a regional championship. Although this is only her first year of coaching, she has had much experience with high school and college lacrosse at Ohio State.
“It was really exciting because this has never happened before and it was just overall a cool experience,” junior Natalya Krouse said.
No significant changes swept over the softball team this year, but their victory was well-earned. Although, last year they were eliminated in the second round of playoffs the Wildcats redeemed themselves by winning regional this year. Everyone on the team has been united in their passion for first after their loss last year, which led to hard work at practice and a successful season.
“Only our captains got to be a part of the Fox News interviews but winning regionals was a great feeling,” junior Carly Gilder said.
The baseball team has been working hard this season with many new members. The varsity team took on a lot of freshman and sophomore talent that helped them to the regional finals. This baseball team also has a lot of college commits or future commits, people who plan to continue playing baseball in college. Leo Simpson has committed to playing at Radford College, Dan Avillo to Carleton College and Braden LaChapelle to Macalester College.
These are only some of the colleges that players plan on attending to further their athletic careers. Junior Jay Wandell plans on playing baseball in college and has been working hard with his team this year in order to improve before playing in college.
“We’ve practiced really hard the past few months to make it to the finals, it just sucks we went out that way,” junior Jay Wandell said.
