As the warm and welcoming summer heat takes place in the spring, so does the welcome of Perry’s softball season. Varsity hits the ground running after a previous season record of 11 wins, earning a No. 14 seed in last year’s state playoffs. The team is steadfast on polishing their skills and maintaining another successful season.

“We can hit, we are good defensively and we can pitch the lights out,” head coach Rob Hehe shares.

The team prepares for a challenging schedule as they compete against conference teams such as Hamilton, Chandler and Basha. With the use of good pitchers, the team plans to combat these tough division teams with good pitchers. This year, the Pumas have a unique roster of four extremely skilled pitchers, an asset many other teams lack in quantity, one of these pitchers being freshmen Sage Stutz.

“Sage pitched the lights out in tryouts, she threw a total of 12 innings and gave up two hits against our returning varsity team,” Coach Hehe says. Stutz’s achieved her goal of making varsity her freshman year and knows the importance of staying competitive and polished in order to maintain her skilled pitching status.

“I’ve been pitching since I was eight years old.” Stutz shares.

Stutz, however, is not the only freshmen making a standing impression. Freshmen outfielder Natalie Arbizu also brings a young but fiery component to this year’s roster.

Despite the loss of key players like Adela Martinez the team looks to fill the gap with young players.This year the team will be accompanied by eight of last season’s nine starters. The team knows the importance of solid companionship and team bondage and regard it as one of the most import tools into developing a successful team.

“We all hang out a lot. We have good team chemistry.” Stutz says.

Varsity will officially kick off the season this month facing a tough schedule as they compete against high scoring playoff teams such as Mountain Pointe and Xavier. “This year they have loaded our region up,” coach Hehe shares, excited for the challenge.

The Pumas take on Liberty High School Mar 1 for the first game of the season. The team’s first home game is against Mesa High School Mar. 3 at 3:45p.m.