Senior Day/Senior Night, a time of recognition for student and parent alike, is always filled with emotion. Thursday in New Holland was such a time for the Garden Spot softball team and the emotions flowed freely. Doubly so.
The Spartans recognized senior players Alyssa Brace, Sydni King, Leksi Bender and Natalija Gilgorevic, doing it in grand style as after almost two years to the day from their last victory they broke a 34-game losing streak with a 13-3 win over Cocalico in a Lancaster-Lebanon Section Three game.
“With the celebration after the game you would’ve thought we won the World Series,” Spartans coach Kim King shared in an email. “It was a great after party.”
The streak dated to May 5, 2022, when the Spartans defeated Spring Grove in a nonleague contest. Two losses followed to close out the season. The Spartans were 0-for-17 in 2023 and lost the first 15 games of 2024.
“Even through the tough times (the seniors) have always been upbeat and positive,” Kim King said, “especially with the younger players, some of whom had never really played before.”
There was a harbinger that the end of the streak could be near. One week earlier the Spartans played Cocalico at Denver, with the Eagles winning 11-7. It was the Spartans’ closest margin of defeat this year.
Thursday, after Cocalico put up a crooked number in the top of the third to take a 3-1 lead, the Spartans responded with a three-spot in their half of the third and never looked back, scoring a run in the fourth and four each in the fifth and sixth innings.
Junior Paige Brady allowed four hits in the complete game. Sydni King stood out defensively at shortstop and was 3-for-3 with a pair of walks, four runs scored and two RBIs.
Junior Genevieve Adamow also scored four times while going 3-for-4 with a walk and two RBIs. Junior catcher Rebekah Hoover threw out a potential base stealer and went 3-for-5 with a triple and three RBIs.
The offensive outbursts in the fifth and sixth triggered the 10-run mercy rule. It also opened the floodgates tear-wise.
“The seniors all had tears in their eyes,” Kim King said. “Admittedly, I also had some tears, tears of pride in these girls and their hard work.”
The Spartans host section champion Donegal Monday before closing the season with a nonleague game at Conestoga Valley next Monday. With seven underclassmen set to return, the future, while not rosy, looks infinitely better for Garden Spot.
Strikeout records
In an effort to spark more offense, the National Federation of High Schools in 2011 adopted a rule change that moved the pitcher’s plate back from 40 feet to 43 feet.
While records are sketchy for the 40-foot era, the top pitchers in the L-L League in that era in terms of career strikeouts were Cait Paine of Lebanon and Sam (Derr) Snyder of Warwick, with Snyder surpassing Paine during her senior season.
Since the transition from 40 feet to 43 feet, current Lancaster Catholic coach Emily Detz recorded 213 strikeouts for Columbia in 2011, her senior season.
Brittany Hook of Penn Manor set the league single-season mark as a freshman in 2015 with 276 strikeouts, a record that lasted a year, broken by Pequea Valley junior Sabrina Ryan, who finished with 281.
They are the top two in the L-L League in career Ks for the 43-foot era, Hook with 998 and Ryan with 821.
Lampeter-Strasburg’s Jordan Weaver (740), Solanco’s Hanna Phillips (599) and Manheim Township’s Reilly Gearhart (564) round out the top five, followed by Garden Spot’s Taylor Martin (555), Donegal’s Makayla Yoder (523), Garden Spot’s Elizabeth King (516), Ephrata’s Ellie Meier (508) and Donegal’s Sierra Neiss (501).
It should be noted that Neiss accomplished her feat in just three years, losing her senior season to the COVID pandemic.
Coming in at just under 500 career Ks is Lampeter-Strasburg’s Keiva Middleton (495), while two current athletes are pushing hard to surpass her.
With at least three games left in the season, Elco junior Gabby Smith sits at 467 career strikeouts. Also with at least three games left in her scholastic career, Hempfield’s Carley Ernst has 455 career Ks.
Both separated themselves from Conestoga Valley grad Rhiannon Henry this season, with Henry rounding out the 400-plus list with exactly 400 career strikeouts.
Dave Byrne is a sports correspondent for LNP | LancasterOnline. Email him at lonborg41@gmail.com.
