Plain and simple: The Redmond High softball team tore it up last season.<\/p>\n
The Mustangs completed the postseason trifecta by winning the 3A state title, SeaKing District crown and KingCo tournament championship.<\/p>\n
They return 10 players from that super squad and are aiming to get back to state again. Coach Alison Mitchell stresses to her players that challenges await this season.<\/p>\n
“All we talked about the first day, just reminding kids, ‘Hey, here’s what we did,’ to kind of set a precedent for the new girls,” Mitchell said. “But we made it very clear, all the coaches did, a unified message to the girls that last year is last year, ‘You put a massive target on your back, so expect everybody’s best this year, and we don’t wanna hear about it again.’”<\/p>\n
Tops for Redmond are Kiki Milloy, a junior pitcher; Mara Kipnis, a senior at third base; and Sophia Viola, a senior pitcher. Milloy — already a University of Tennessee commit — earned league most valuable player honors and slammed two homers and notched the win from the pitchers’ circle in Redmond’s 9-5 victory over Yelm for the state title. Kipnis, who has committed to Williams College in Massachusetts, was a second-team all-leaguer and supplied a two-run double in the state title matchup.<\/p>\n
Mitchell said that Milloy has continued to grow mentally and physically and is looking to keep breaking the ball in the right spot against batters; Kipnis is a versatile four-year starter who makes outstanding plays in the field and thrives in her leadership role; and Viola, an honorable mention in 2017, has grown from last year and teams up with Milloy for a vital one-two pitching punch with different styles, spins and speeds.<\/p>\n
The squad battled fatigue at the state weekend tourney last year, and Mitchell said that strength and conditioning sessions and a specialized warmup routine should help spark their endurance throughout the season.<\/p>\n
“It’s a solid core group. I’m blessed,” said Mitchell, noting that this year’s team scenario is a continuation from last season. “We’re really excited about that, ‘cause now we can push the kids even further and see what more they’re capable of.”<\/p>\n
At press time, Redmond led the league with a 4-0 mark and was 5-0 overall.<\/p>\n
Jennifer Cummings and Milloy each have a pair of homers and Audrey Walker has a dinger as well. In a 7-0 win over Lake Washington, Cummings, Mara Kipnis and Camille Eaton had two hits each and Milloy got the win with a one-hitter and nine strikeouts.<\/p>\n
Head coach:<\/strong> Alison Mitchell<\/p>\n Last year:<\/strong> 3A state champions; 20-4 overall, 10-1 in 3A KingCo; KingCo tournament and SeaKing District champs<\/p>\n Key returners:<\/strong> Kiki Milloy, junior, P; Mara Kipnis, senior, 3B; Sophia Viola, senior, P<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Plain and simple: The Redmond High softball team tore it up last season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":22157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,6],"tags":[38],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.redmond-reporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22156"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.redmond-reporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.redmond-reporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redmond-reporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redmond-reporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.redmond-reporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redmond-reporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.redmond-reporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redmond-reporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redmond-reporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22156"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redmond-reporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=22156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}