The Monterey softball team entered the week in unfamiliar territory. Winners of four consecutive district titles, the Plainsmen were outside the playoff picture only a few days ago.
Such was the product of a rollercoaster season with a transformed roster. Not many starters returned from last year's region semifinalist squad, but those who did have their hands all over the current turnaround.
Three-year letterman Jaden Smith is among the elder statesmen leading the way. She went 4 for 5 with a home run and four RBIs in Friday's 15-5 win over Lubbock High at Lady Westerner Field. It was the Plainsmen's second-straight victory over a team ahead of them in the District 3-5A standings.
Monterey (11-14, 7-5 district) has won three in a row to pull within a half-game of LHS (15-12-2, 7-4) for third place. Amarillo Caprock — which the Plainsmen beat 19-8 on Tuesday — is 6-5 in district and trailed Amarillo High 3-1 in a game that was suspended in the fourth inning Friday.
"We've been having a couple bumps in the road getting up until now," Smith said. "This win, it's really keeping our momentum going. It's really showing us who we know we can be now. It's a big motivation."
The week's results also avenged a pair of games Monterey coach Brian Cronk felt the team let slip away. Cronk said that's a sign the Plainsmen are moving in the right direction after a rugged non-district slate and up-and-down first half of 3-5A action.
"You can see the way we've been playing lately that we're starting to grow into where we had expected to be earlier in the year," Cronk said. "You're starting to see some good signs of maturity surface. We have some kids that are swinging the bats pretty well. We think we found a little bit of a groove with where we are in the circle and what we've been doing there."
Smith, Makayla Perez, Ali Vaquera and Selena Fernandez are Monterey's returning starters. The former three are juniors who have seen the heights of playoff runs. All they've experienced is postseason success, and they're using their voices in hopes of guiding the newcomers to the same path.
"We had a ton of seniors graduate," Smith said. "Us juniors, we knew we had to step up and start leading the team, especially because there's so many of us who have experienced being on varsity. … (We're) pushing each other to be better every day and making sure we're holding each other accountable."
The Plainsmen have been particularly hot since a 13-3 loss to rival Coronado on March 28. Monterey has scored 51 runs over its past three games. Pitching has seen improvement, and Cronk believes the team is finding itself at the right time.
Cronk said the team has "turned a corner, but we're getting to another." He feels tradition has helped the Plainsmen bounce back from their rough patches with four district games remaining.
"They took some bumps on the chin because of the tradition that existed and exists," Cronk said. "We went down to Dallas and Allen and took it on the chin two weekends in a row (early in the season). They could've tucked a tail between their legs and turned their stuff in and said, 'Oh, woe is me.' But they continued to show up and plug away.
"We put ourselves in this position that we're in to have a ...
