BY MARK ZIMMARO

(Pictures & Video by Mark Zimmaro for PSD)

Lucia Sanchez knows there is more than one way to record an out in softball. The Westtown School junior pitcher has the ability to throw heat and can search for a strikeout almost all the time. But sometimes, there’s a better option. It’s a strategy she learned while taking part in her school's robotics programs as the squad’s drive coach, responsible for the winning plan each match.

“I tell the driver and operator where to go and what to do to score the most points,” Sanchez said. “I feel like that really correlates with softball. When I’m on the mound, I’m hitting my spots to strike people out or get certain contact out of them. It’s the same thing in robotics. We come up with a team strategy before and we talk about exactly what we are going to do because there are a lot of different ways to score points. We try to maximize everything. I love the strategy with both.”

Sanchez will actually have to miss a pair of key games on Thursday and Saturday against the Academy of New Church and the George School as Westtown’s Metal Moose Team 1391 robotics program heads to Houston on Wednesday to compete in the 2023 FIRST Championships against the best teams in the country.

It’s one of two big upcoming trips for Sanchez. The other will come this summer when members of the robotics team volunteer at Camp Dream Catcher, which provides a week of fun for children who are impacted by HIV/AIDS. Some children will enjoy activities like swimming, basketball, campfires, hiking, boating, and horseback riding. Sanchez and her teammates will teach LEGO robotics to the kids including coding and engineering.

“I’m so excited about it,” Sanchez said. “I just can’t wait to go.”

There will be more opportunity for a pretty deep lineup that includes catcher Alana Thomforde, Grace Malavolta, Vianna Kanyamiheto-Watson, Madison Delete, Margaux Luvisutto and Sanchez’s younger sister Delia Sanchez, who is an eighth-grader.

“Usually if we start hitting in the beginning (of the game), it just gets us on a roll,” said Thomforde, the team’s sophomore catcher. “It’s very nice and hype.”

Thomforde and Sanchez have a good relationship as the Moose’s battery.

“I love catching for her because she’s usually really accurate,” Thomforde said. “It makes it a lot easier for me. She hits her spots really well and her ball has so much spin on it that it’s really hard for the batter to pick up on that and hit the ball.”

We’re just a few games into the season, The Shipley School and Academy of the New Church remain undefeated in Friends League play through Apri16, both sitting at 2-0.

Shipley’s Maddy Todd had a fantastic week as the Gators went 3-0 overall, including a pair of Friends League victories. Todd went 6-for-9 at the plate with five RBIs to help ignite 37 total runs by the Gators. She was even more dominant in the circle by striking out 29 batters over 17 innings and only allowing four hits. Shipley has allowed a total of just two runs in its first two FSL games this season.

Academy of The New Church is the other undefeated team in league play but the Lions have their work cut out for them. Next on the schedule this week is meetings with George School, followed by Westtown Friends. Next week has Friends Select and Friends' Central. And a date with Shipley looms after that. A rather young group will start seeing some serious tests.

“It’s definitely a season of growing and learning and reestablishing the skill sets,” said new coach Caitlin Irwin. “We have been working really hard in practices, bringing in new drills.”

The challenge has been replacing most of the infield except for pitcher Jamie Madara and catcher Olivia Schriver, who are both sophomores.

“Everyone has a new position this year except for our pitcher and catcher,” Irwin said after a 16-6 win over Abington Friends.

“So, it’s relearning those positions. I think they started off a little confident, maybe too confident. Then they saw they needed to step up their skill set and that’s when we started to score some runs.”

They weren’t exactly at full health either. Madara admitted she was fighting through some pain that could involve her meniscus.

“It’s pending but I might have a torn meniscus,” Madara said. I’m working with that right now and I’m taking care of it.”

“We realized we are a better team and we’ve been practicing hard,” Schriver said. “We know we need to put all that we practiced into the game and get focused and that’s exactly what we did.”

“I just want to make sure no one is left out. Teams that are on the rebound like us, we can get kids in there. And I like it because they work hard at practice, and I like to give them a little reward to get out there in a game," said Fusetti.

The message isn’t being lost on the players.

“I really love this team,” said freshman shortstop/pitcher Elise Graber. “It’s a lot of community, it’s a lot of fun. I really love being here, especially with the players and teaching everyone everything. It’s really fun.”