By Cameron Hill

   “And next up to bat: Senior Amy Gonzales,” the announcer says with a hint of surprise in his voice. 

   It isn’t every day that you hear of a girl playing on the boys’ baseball team, but this year, with only nine players set to play, the team has two Lady Knights on the roster, sisters Amy and Kailey Gonzalez. 

   The small roster size arises from a few different circumstances. Amy said, “With the addition of boys volleyball to the Spring sports, our male athletes have been spread thin.” Senior Alex Maxwell said that the team “lost a lot of players from last year,” and mentioned several injuries to players. Despite these challenges, Alex says the team has “been able to maintain a strong roster.” 

   The key to the team’s success has been the addition of the sisters. Alex said the whole team is thankful for “skill sets brought to the team by Amy and Kailey.” The team entered the season with essentially the bare minimum of players required to play. Injuries and other absences are bound to happen, and if a team could not be fielded, TPA would have to forfeit games. 

   As a consequence of forfeiting a game, the team also would not have been eligible for playoffs. But Head Coach Brad Sullivan had an out-of-the-box idea. Because TPA has no softball team this year, girls are eligible to play on the baseball team. Coach Sullivan asked Amy and Kailey, who were originally brought on to fulfill managerial positions, if they could play. Despite zero previous baseball or softball experience, they agreed to join the team as players. The two have proved critical to the team’s success, as they have filled in when the team otherwise would not have had enough players. 

   TPA had some early season hiccups because of absences and injuries among key players. However, Alex said, “My favorite part about playing baseball is the progressiveness of the sport and how it doesn’t matter if you get blown out 34-0, because you can turn around and win the next game 16-0.” Their season could not be more emblematic of this progress. Despite failures early on, the team has come on strong during region play and now has a 5-5 record. Alex says the team is now gearing up to make the push towards playoffs as it plays through its regional games, which carry the most weight for playoff seeding.

   The team’s next game is April 13 against Chandler Prep at the Tempe Diablo Complex.