Arredondo belting homers, winning medals as multi-sport star

Bees vs Mabank FEATURE — National Fast Pitch News All-American Nadine Arredondo is the 2017 Big Country Offensive Player of the Year, according to the All-Big Country softball team published online Saturday by the Abilene Reporter-News. | The Flash Today photo by BRAD KEITH

Senior slugger doubles as a star thrower for SHS track team

By BRAD KEITH

TheFlashToday.com

STEPHENVILLE (February 29, 2016) — Nadine Arredondo doesn’t even think did anything special.

But that’s just Arredondo’s character. Shrug off one achievement and move right on to working on the next.

It’s a focus that worked brilliantly last weekend, when Arredondo juggled the Honeybee Softball Invitational with the Ram Relays in Mineral Wells.

The Stephenville senior was 8-for-9 from the plate, belted a home run and a triple and drove in seven runs while scoring more, helping the Honeybees outscore three pool play opponents 48-0.

Arredondo began her Saturday with a trip to Mineral Wells, where she set personal marks in the discuss and the shot-put, placing second in both.

Then it was back in the car and back to Stephenville. She arrived in time to hit one of three Honeybee home runs in a 12-1 rout of Granbury, then went 2-for-3 from the plate in the 2-0 championship loss to Hillsboro.

“I didn’t really feel like I hit the ball that well,” said Arredondo, and she meant it. “I always think I can do better, I could seen the ball better and hit it harder.”

That was what the senior slugger took from batting .800 over the weekend with two home runs, 10 runs driven in and nine runs scored. In fact, she says she actually prefers to be in the field over the batter’s box.

“I like when I’m in the field, it’s less pressure. When you’re batting you’re up there on your own,” she said.

She’s not alone, though, in driving in big production for Stephenville. For the season, Arredondo has a .529 batting average with three home runs, has driven in 12 runs and has scored 18. Junior short stop Sami Shaffer actually leads the Bees with a .568 average, has two home runs, 18 runs driven in, and matches Arredondo with a team-leading 18 runs. Senior second baseman Kali Smith is batting .571.

“We have a lot of good hitters, it’s a good lineup,” says Arredondo, who joins her teammates for a short road trip to Dublin Tuesday with first pitch set for 7 p.m. “We just have to come together as a team more than ever before and keep working to get better.”

Which she’s doing in softball and in track and field.

“She’s a great kid, she’s humble and she’s shy,” says Stephenville head coach Rus Mayes. “But she hits the ball as well as anybody. She has a great eye from the plate, and she’s a great thrower for the track team, too. She’s going to have a big spring.”