Many Lugo sports in this 2018-2019 season have shown major success, such as girls’ basketball having a 9-1 league record and advancing to the second round of CIF, or Lugo’s football team completing a perfect league record of 5-0 and also advancing to CIF. These teams have proved to people why we are the best high school, however two teams stand above from the rest not just from numbers but from the tough season that had to push through in order to get to the top. When talking about the baseball and softball season, both teams equally dominated their competition throughout the season.

Baseball ended the season with an incredible 24-7 record and finished 1st in the Mt. Baldy league. They also made several statistical achievements this year, finishing with a team average of a .320 batting average and averaging 6.1 runs a game. The young stars easily won through their league and made CIF playoffs in a breeze. They also averaged around an ERA (Earned Run Average) of 1.74, which is surprisingly good.

Lugo baseball however, was a different story last year compared to now. Finishing with just a 16-10 record last year and with a brand new coaching staff (coach Highstreet and  former MLB pitcher Chad Cordero) they were able to take over the young baseball team and make them play to the best of their abilities. Both coaches had a huge impact on the team’s performance and had an amazing record of 24-7 which comes in second for the best record the baseball season has had in the past decade.

Not everything went perfect for this team however, after a disappointing loss in the first round of CIF their dream season came to an end. Nevertheless, some players saw it as a new beginning. In Joshua Cortina’s words,  “All the freshmen, sophomores, and juniors have to step up and fill the holes from the seniors and focus on working together to make it further than we did this year.”

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Even though we came up short we all had a good time with each other.

— JT Cortinas

Even with as much of an improvement this team had compared to last years, there is still road blocks to get over in order for this young team to succeed.

Meanwhile, softball also had a good overall season considering the rough patches they had to endure. Ending with an average 12-11 record, softball seemed to have a little bit of an underwhelming season compared to last years season after going 20-7. Although the numbers from last season may make the recent season look mediocre, the Lady Conquistadors showed some pride even through the thinnest of margins.

After losing star pitcher Crystal Amaral from last season as she carried her team to CIF semi-finals, the softball team had a hard time finding the spark this season. Along with losing one of their best players, Lugo softball had coaching and management issues early on in the season with coach Ron Poteet resigning from head coach due to personal reasons. Coach Poteet had a major impact on this team especially since he has been a part of this program for 2 and a half years causing  immediate discomfort in the players.

One anonymous player said, “It felt like we were disconnected.” This goes to show how much this affected their performance after going 0-4 on a two-week schedule. On the other hand, this didn’t stop them from achieving their goals: after having coach Gano take over for the head coach role of the softball team, the Lady Conquistadors still managed to get past their troubles and advance to CIF in a breeze.

Although it was an early exit in CIF for Lugo softball, it still was impressive to see how they set all of their troubles aside and kept their eyes on the prize without letting the distractions get to them. Lugo softball has shown that the future of the program has what it takes no matter what the circumstance is.

As for both teams combined, Lugo baseball and softball have still had the upper-hand compared to their competition. With their grit and passion for the game, the sky is the limit to these young athletes who look to continue winning for years and years to come.