The St. John’s Softball team entered the Athens Seventh Annual Georgia Softball Classic last weekend with a 4-1 record. Upon playing four games in three days, they left the state of Georgia three games over .500.

The biggest star of the weekend for the Red Storm (6-3) was junior catcher Kacee Cox.

Cox finished the tournament 9-for-13 with two home runs, a double, and six RBIs.

“I was very pleased with my
performance this weekend,” said the junior slugger.

“I felt really confident with my offensive and defensive abilities this weekend,” Cox said. “I was able to stay pretty level emotionally and I never let anything affect my playing ability. I owe a lot of my success to Coach [Laura] Taylor and Coach Andy [Russo] on helping me with my swing and working out all the kinks. I wouldn’t be where I am at now without them.”

On the mound, the Red Storm were led by junior Linzee Sumrall, who received a win in both of St. John’s victories.

Overall, the right-hander stuck out thirteen batters in sixteen innings of work. She threw two complete games and finished with a 2.25 ERA.

Overshadowed by the strong
performances of Cox and Sumrall were sophomores Julia Sanchez, Meghan Gwynn, Kristi Cady, and senior Shauntaine Harris.

All hit .400 or better in the tournament.
Freshman shortstop Chrissy Montez slugged her first career home run in the game one loss versus South Alabama. Seven Red Storm players would finish with a hit in the one-run defeat.

Head Coach Amy Kvilhaug is certainly pleased by the somewhat impressive start to the season and the progress made by her girls this weekend.

“With it being early in the season we are looking to work on and improve all facets of our game,” said Kvilhaug. “We had big contributions from many players at different times, whether offensively when we needed the big hit or defensively when we needed the big out. Spreading the wealth was nice to see.”

The next trip for St. John’s will be to the Grand Canyon State of Arizona where they will play ten games from March 7-14. The Red Storm will play two games in Tucson against No. 2/2 Arizona on March 7-8 and then travel to Tempe to take on No. 10/7 Arizona State on March 10.

The team will then return to Tucson to participate in the Wildcat Invitational from March 12-14, where opponents include Creighton, Northern Colorado, Minnesota, No. 2/2 Arizona and Illinois-Chicago.