On Thursday, May 4, the Archie Williams Falcons softball team stepped up to the plate in their last game to beat the Terra Linda Trojans 5-0. The Falcons celebrated Senior Night and honored their lone senior Stella Garza before the game with a speech and flowers. 

The Falcons put a point on the scoreboard early in the first inning. Sophomore Paige Murphy pitched a scoreless game, with help from the field players. 

Throughout the next few innings, neither team could get much offensive flow. The Falcons struggled to get hits and had five strikeouts. 

Halfway through the sixth inning, after Paige had yet another scoreless inning, coach Neil Murphy huddled the team together and reminded them of what they were playing for. 

“We rallied around Stella Garza who was our senior. She’s our captain, so I think the team didn’t want Stella to go out on a bad note,” Murphy said.

In the sixth inning, the Falcons took over the game. After a triple from Paige, freshman Chase Unger brought in the Falcons’ first run of the game with an RBI single. Sophomore Kennedy Dunsing quickly followed this up with another triple, before junior Amelia Richer brought her home with a single. In total, the Falcons tallied four runs in the sixth inning to lock in their victory over the Trojans. 

The Trojans could not respond to the Falcons’ strong sixth inning, and the final score was 5-0.

Before her freshman year, Stella had no softball experience. Thanks to her coaches, she learned and grew as a player. 

“She worked so hard her whole career here. She never played before her freshman year, any softball whatsoever. So the fact that she worked so hard and became a starting senior was really really cool,” Murphy said. 

Though the coaches taught Stella everything she needed to know about the game, she owes her ability to stick with the sport to her teammates. 

“I love the team. That’s kind of why I stuck with it. I didn’t start off playing softball. But the team really helped me like, stick with it and grow,” Stella said.

Stella will miss playing softball for the Falcons as she heads to Washington State University next year.