Gators’ veterans fuel victory over Durango

Many of the faces on Green Valley’s softball team are far from familiar.

The Gators (4-0) lost seven seniors from last year’s Sunrise Region championship squad, and return only one full-time starter and a pair of part-time starters.

On Monday, that trio of returnees showed the Gators’ younger players what to do on the field.

Shelby Vickers, Chelsea Anderson and Marissa Iwanylo combined to go 6-for-11 with six runs and seven RBIs as the Gators downed host Durango, 9-4.

“We’re very, very young,” Green Valley coach Lauren Taylor said. “We have to rely on so few to make sure everybody learns the Gator way of how to do things, but our three, four and five hitters really came through today.”

Vickers, a senior shortstop, is the only regular starter back from last season. Six of the Gators’ nine starters Monday weren’t on the varsity roster last year.

“We do have a couple of kids that we brought up this year that are just phenomenal, but we lost so many,” Taylor said.

It took only until the second trip through the batting order for the returnees’ experience to show.

Trailing 2-0 entering the third inning, the Gators got a two-out RBI single from Vickers. Three pitches later, Anderson belted a three-run homer to left-center field to give Green Valley a 4-2 lead.

The Trailblazers (4-4) got the runs back in the bottom of the third inning, but Green Valley took the lead for good with three runs in the fifth.

Vickers doubled down the left-field line to lead off the inning. Anderson singled to right-center to drive home Vickers, and Iwanylo followed with a two-run homer to center field.

Newcomer Tara Webster and Cori Sutton, who saw limited varsity action last year, each added an RBI single in the seventh inning.

Webster, a sophomore, surrendered a leadoff home run to Durango’s Nicole Schultz in the first inning, but settled in after that. She allowed just five hits and two walks, with two strikeouts.

“The biggest thing with our pitchers is to always maintain your composure,” Taylor said. “That’s been drilled into them from summer ball and me. They’re confident, and we really do, on a good day, have good defense.”

Mindy Larson went 3-for-4 with a home run and a double for Durango, which wore personally decorated orange T-shirts to honor the memory of Donovan Smith.

Smith, a Durango senior, died Thursday morning after a car accident.

Each player had Smith’s name across her back.