Even without Shaffer, No. 5 Bees have plenty of firepower

Stephenville softball at Alvarado Feature — No doubt Stephenville will miss senior Sami Shaffer, but the No. 5 Honeybees still have plenty of fire power. || TheFlashToday.com photo

By BRAD KEITH
TheFlashToday.com

STEPHENVILLE (April 15, 2017) — About the only thing No. 5 Stephenville softball has lost lately has been its catcher to a broken arm.

Sami Shaffer suffered an unfortunate early end to her senior campaign, but it won’t be the last time she steps on a softball diamond as she has signed with Tarleton State.

But one the field, the Honeybees have won 10 straight and is 22-3 overall, and have now outscored 8-4A district opponents by the combined margin of 142-13. They’re latest rout was 15-1 at Midlothian Heritage Thursday evening, securing at least a share of the district title. They can win it outright as soon as Tuesday, when they visit Godley at 7 p.m

Staffer’s season ends with her holding a batting average of .508, third on the team amongst players with a qualifying total of at bats. She She had four home runs and 19 RBI.

But it isn’t as if the Honeybee batting lineup doesn’t have other options for power from the plate. Senior third baseman Nadine Arredondo leads the team in batting average at .545, home runs with 10 and is tied with Julia Flores for the lead in RBI with 44.

Flores hits .530 and has five home runs to go with all those RBI, and of course, has pitched virtually every important inning of the season in the circle. In 114.2 innings over 24 appearances including 23 starts, she is 20-3 on the season with a 1.95 earned run average and is allowing less than one walk plus hit per inning. She has 169 strikeouts to just 17 walks plus hit batters. Flores has surrendered 46 runs all yer, 32 of them earned.

She’s certainly had plenty of offensive help, and not just from herself, Arredondo and Shaffer. The Bees hit .422 as a team, including .427 by Morgan DiCiccio and .417 by Madison Gilder, their 1-2 hitters at the top of the lineup. Sam Luna has come on strong to hit .400, Bianka Combs is at .394 and Jessica Ebeling .380. Kristen Pettit has just eight at bats – five of those with three hits coming Thursday – but is hitting .375.

The Bees have swatted a school record 26 home runs this season. Following Arredondo with a school record 10, Howell and Flores each have five. After Shaffer’s four, Combs and Ebeling each have one.