COUGARS OPEN DEFENSE OF SOFTBALL TITLE

By Jay Leon Guerrero

The defending ISA Girls Softball League champion Academy Cougars started their 2025 campaign with a big win against the GW Geckos 14-7 Tuesday afternoon.

Junior pitcher Sadie Guerrero earned the complete game victory with nine strikeouts to help the Cougars win their season opener at the GW Field.

Opposing pitcher, Brinnlyn Hardt from Guam High School, is now playing for GW due to not enough on the roster for the Panthers.

Hardt was throwing some heat the entire game and also hit two doubles behind the plate in her debut in a purple and gold uniform, this after just joining the Geckos on Monday.

Despite some hard pitching from Hardt, the Cougars managed to score early. Academy’s Olivia Camacho drove in two runs with a single to right field to put the Cougars up early. Later in the inning, Aniyah Benavente hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Camacho to go up 4-0. 

The Geckos answered in the bottom of the first, capitalizing on Cougar errors and some wild pitches to tie the game at 4-4.

Both aces found their rhythm in the second inning, with Hardt and Guerrero striking out the side.

The Geckos took their first lead of the game in the third inning, with Hardt recording an RBI double. Shyann Cruz from GW drove in Hardt to go up 6-4 after three innings.

The Cougars went ahead for good in the top of the fifth inning, with Benavente starting off with a single. Benavente later scored off an RBI double from Tera Mann to go up 8-6.

Benavente scores again, off an error, in the sixth inning to add insurance runs for the Cougars.

The final score ended after seven innings with Academy winning 14-7.

“It feels really good to get this win,” said Benavente. Benavente scored had three runs for the game and two RBIs. 

“There’s still a lot of things we need to work on. I’m really proud of my team and my sisters for picking each other up to bring out the best versions of ourselves out on the field today,” added Benavente.

“We like to recognize the talent that GW brought to the season opener game. Ultimately, It was a pitchers duel to the end,” said Academy coach Marissa Maratita.

“We’re super proud of our captains and the rest of our leaders for stepping up and performing in new positions they just had to adjust to this week,” added Maratita. “We definitely have areas we need to improve on, so we’re going to continue to put in the work. We teach the girls that nothing is ever given. They earn their wins and today proved that.”