History in the making: How Dolores Huerta baseball made a turnaround with a new head coach
Change is rarely an easy thing.
When it comes to Dolores Huerta baseball, the shift in leadership this year was tough on the team. But first-year head coach Tom Grasmick has done all he can to try and take his talented team to where they need to be.
The players responded well and are now on the brink of making history.
"The kids just completely bought into everything we're doing,” Grasmick said. “A whole new coaching staff this year and they bought in 100%. And they're just going out and doing everything we ask, and the results are showing on the scoreboard and with our record this year, I cannot be prouder of them. They were put in a tough situation. They fought out of it and we're looking for the first playoff appearance in school history."
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There are many names on the team that people may not be familiar with and others that will catch your eye. But baseball is a team sport, and sometimes it takes eight or nine boys to bring the team along. In the case of the Scorpions, a promising female athlete is even thrown into the mix.
“We knew what we had with Cameron Stringfellow, he is an athlete and can play all nine positions on the field for us. He hits in that leadoff spot and he's leading our team in average, bases, and runs scored,” Grasmick said. “Joshua Maestas on the mound has just really done a great job for us. Cristo Esquibel is behind the dish, catching, and then we bring him in as kind of our reliever, our heater guy to change pace. Ray Molina, sophomore, hadn't played baseball since Little League and came out for the team this year and is starting at third base for us.
“Noah Acuña has made so many adjustments that we asked him to move to left field and he made that adjustment for us. Mason Vider, who's in centerfield, has raised his average to .300 since the beginning of April, he’s never played centerfield before. CJ Mercado, a sophomore. He's been an infielder his whole career and we asked him to move to the outfield and doing a he's great job for us there.
"Finally, Nykeysha Stringfellow, I can't say enough about her. She's not only my right hand in the dugout, taking care of all my stuff in the dugout for me, but then she goes out and gets us innings at catcher, her on-base percentage is constantly rising, whether it's hits or walks, whatever it takes to get on base for us. So we're 10 strong right now.”
With the team starting to hit its stride at just the right time, the Scorpions are currently sitting as the No. 25-ranked team in Class 2A. The top 32 teams make it to the regional playoff bracket for a chance to advance to the state championships. It’s something that Dolores Huerta has failed to reach in its entire existence as a program. But this year is different.
“Hopefully, we're locked into that playoff spot, but we're not satisfied with just being locked in. We want to get as high as we can,” Grasmick said. “We've got two games left to do it.”
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Unless something drastic occurs, the team is locked into the playoffs. But regardless of their position in the standings, the one thing that Grasmick is working on more than anything with this team is the way they carry themselves off the field.
“Respect and discipline. I use the same model in football with these guys,” Grasmick said. “Respect, for us, is number one, as well as discipline for ourselves. Respect for our opponents, respect for the game, respect in the classroom, and the kids have responded to it. We'll stay with that next year with the baseball team, it's going to be respect and discipline because for me, I teach more about life than I do sports and I believe that those two things will get you a long way in life.”
The Scorpions are currently 10-11 on the season with a 2-2 record in league play. They are led by Stringfellow, who is hitting .536 and is 6-2 on the mound.
Christopher Abdelmalek is a sports reporter for the Pueblo Chieftain and can be reached at cabdelmalek@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @chowebacca. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Dolores Huerta baseball is poised to make the playoffs for first time
