LJ softball: The 'Emmy Era'?

Freshman Emmy Cardenas warms up
before the Vikings' game at Parker.
The newcomer pitched a no-hitter
in her first high school game
Feb. 18.
(Photos by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

In her first game stepping in the pitching circle in high school, ninth-grader Emmy Cardenas no-hit the Coronado Islanders softball team--on their home field.

That was a week ago, Tues., Feb. 18. Cardenas and her La Jolla High teammates won the season opener.

(That was already one more win than all of last year for the Vikings; their record was 0-22 in 2019.)

The 14-year-old has at least five pitches: a fastball, change-up, curve, screwball, and rise.

In the top of the first at Parker Tues., Feb. 25, Cardenas and her teammates drilled senior travel-ball veteran Katy Austin for four runs, Emmy clubbing a shot that sailed over the Lancers' centerfielder and bounced to the fence to drive in two runs. La Jolla, which had no attack at all last year, added two more baserunners before Austin, in her fourth year pitching for the Parker varsity, and the defense behind her could stem the bleeding and end the rally.

Freshman rightfielder Presley Cooper initially
rounds third to head home during the Vikings' rally
in the top of the first, but subsequently she
is held up by head coach Andrea Denham.

Viking first baseman Jackie Arias followed Cardenas' long fly with one of her own over the rightfielder's head.

Cardenas, filling up the third slot in fourth-year head coach Andrea Denham's batting lineup in a big way, hadn't even stepped to the pitching circle yet, and her squad held a four-run lead. La Jolla ended up winning, 16-1, with 16 hits. Cardenas went 4-for-4, including two doubles, with four RBI's. 

Can we dub it the "Emmy Era" after only three games of the young season? With Emmy and her father, an assistant coach in his second year with La Jolla, have also come a bunch of newcomers, including freshmen who are experienced club softball players.

Added to the brand-new mix is a junior who moved to San Diego from Beaumont, "near Palm Springs", Kelsey DeFalco, a shortstop.

"Ambition," Farias, one of three team captains with Linda Medina and Arianna Monell, said when asked for a theme for this year's team. "We have the ability, and with what happened last year, we have the energy to work hard and be successful this year."

Captain Jackie Farias makes it to third
in the opening frame, after her
drive over the rightfielder's head

"I knew at our first practice that we had a good team," said new assistant coach Kevin Hurt, who came over from coaching special teams on the Viking football team.

Emmy's father noted his daughter "throws the ball at college speed". Austin, Tuesday's opponent, wasn't shabby, either, throwing her fastball an estimated 53 miles per hour or so, in Mr. Cardenas' view. But it wasn't baffling the top half of the La Jolla line-up, which shellacked the 5'8" hurler in the opening frame.

Freshman Gigi Smith batted second and played second base against the Lancers. Fellow Class of 2023 member Presley Cooper was in the fifth slot in the lineup and played right field.

In contrast to no regular pitcher on last year's squad, this year's group has a veritable plethora of throwers: Cardenas is backed up by Violet Nightingale, a sophomore, as well as Lauren "Lu" Thickstun, a junior.

DeFalco was asked if her new teammates had told her about the team's Division 4 CIF title three years ago, in the culmination of what could be called the "Josie Sinkeldam-Linda Brown-Kyra Ferenczy Era". No, she said, no one had talked about this.

But the desert transfer is no stranger to winning softball. She said that when her class graduates at Beaumont, "They're going to lose" a lot of talented players who are juniors right now. Kind of like the dropoff La Jolla experienced last year through graduations and departures.