From base to base, pitch after pitch, softball and baseball teams at TOHS are ready for this year’s season to kick off.
Both programs enter 2025 under the fountain of youth. The softball program is led by second-year head coach Heather Spohr and four seniors, while the baseball team is under new leadership with seven seniors, to pair with rookie head coach Haden Cronenbold, a TOHS and Oklahoma State baseball alum.
“The program is a lot younger, the coaches from the years before were a lot older,” baseball, junior catcher Matthew Magruder said. “So new coaching style and different environment. It’s a little bit more open and not as strict, but we still focus when we need to focus.”
Having another new coach take over for the TOHS baseball team, the boys tend to lean more towards Cronenbold’s coaching style than the past coaches.
“His coaching style lets us play freely, instead of being on our heels,” Magruder said. “Instead of stressing about making mistakes, everyone makes mistakes and has that support.”
With seniors such as Claire Kirby and Lauren Snyder looking to lead the way for the softball program in 2025, the team seems to have moved on from Tori Masters and Alyssa Beaver, who were seniors in 2024. Masters is playing Division 1 softball at Texas A&M Commerce.
“We did great last year, but I think we will do better [this year] because of the positions the new freshmen play, they are very flexible,” senior Claire Kirby said.
The TOHS softball team has started pre-season off right, as all of the underclassmen have brought the right energy to bring the team together and look stronger after losing key players who were the main contributors to the team. The remaining four seniors now take on the role that can bring this team far into their season and return the softball program to the playoffs.
“We are very determined and motivated, I feel like all of us want to go far,” freshman Olivia LePage said. “So if we want to, we can.”
Baseball and softball both have their differences and similarities, but for the Lancers they both have the determination and grit, upperclassmen or underclassmen, that can power the teams into the postseason and beyond.
The baseball team opened its season in the 2025 Easton Tournament where they would open up 2-0 after victories against Moorpark and Poly before falling to St. Francis in the quarterfinals. Senior Jaden Kolkowski was able to shine bright over the season’s opening tournament, bringing in 2 RBIs while also leading the way for the team on the mound, leaving the tournament as the team’s leader in strikeouts.
The softball team opened up the season on the road at El Camino Real earning a 9-3 victory over the Royals backed by senior Claire Kirby’s 5 RBIs, backed by the team’s 13 strikeouts on the mound.
The Lancers followed this up with their opener against Hueneme, which didn’t see a shortage of offense form the Lancers. Freshmen Olivia LePage and Madison Jauregui both had 5 RBIs and sophomore Samantha Case had 6 RBIs backed by two home runs in the eventual 25-0 victory that got called due to the mercy rule in the middle of the fifth inning. After two games the softball team is outscoring the opponent 34-3.
Both teams look to build off of their successful opening weeks to return the teams back to glory. Baseball looks to make the CIF playoffs for the first time since the 2022 season which was one year removed from the 2021 CIF championship run from the Lancers. Softball looks for its first playoff berth since 2013.
