The Scots were the kings of the mountain on their rainy opening day, sending Valley Christian to the depths of the loss column thanks to a phenomenal pitching performance by freshman Katherine Fung and an early scoring spree that led to an 8-1 final score in favor of the Scots.
The game was not only the first game of the season for the Scots but also the first game for newly appointed JV head coach Michael Armanini, who was particularly excited about his opportunity.
“I played baseball my whole life and really loved the game quite a bit. I did coach in youth softball, but this is my first time [coaching] at a high school level,” Armanini said. “I missed the game, and that’s why I came back to [coach].”
Every year, incoming freshmen classes infuse Carlmont with new talent, and the most impressive debut this year was undoubtedly freshman starting pitcher Katherine Fung. Fung delivered a complete-game four-hitter in her first high school career start, leaving Valley Christian guessing all game.
Fung showed confidence and carried a veteran presence throughout the game, delivering strike after strike relentlessly.
“[Katie] pitched a phenomenal game, I was going to actually pull her to see if she’s getting a little tired but she said she wanted to finish the game, and she finished just phenomenally,” Armanini said.
Another factor that made this performance even more remarkable was the weather conditions, as rain persistently pestered both defenses at the Jim Liggett field, causing the ball to become harder to grip.
On the offensive side of the ball, freshmen were making immediate impacts on the Scots scoreboard, with seven of eight hits belonging to the class of 2025.
Among those offensive performances, freshman shortstop Zoe Wodarczyk impressed many with a three-hit day, including an electrifying opposite-field triple. Freshman first basemen Sophia Cerelli also turned heads with a towering home run that unfortunately was ruled as an out due to a jersey number mishap.
Despite the dominant effort by Carlmont, the team is still looking to improve on certain aspects of the game, such as situational hitting, team chemistry, and communication, all elements of the game that cost the Scots a chance to blow the game open completely.
“Our coaches have been telling us for the last week or so to work on communication, so we’re going to have to keep working on that as a team,” said sophomore second basemen Riya Kadakia.
However, Fung noted that the team had come a long way since their first offseason workouts started, and aspects of the game, such as team chemistry, would only grow as the season went on.
“[The workouts] helped us get to know each other more, and we built teamwork when we helped each other in conditioning and the weight room,” said Fung.
