Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Coach: Tony Esposito, 8th year
Last year: Did not field a team
Key returning players: Mackenzie Kinney (Sr., C) Cadence Zgurich (Sr., SS/P); Kennedy Burzynski (Jr., 2B)
What are the expectations for Cardinal Stritch?
The Cardinals did not field a team last season, and there are eight freshmen on this year's squad.
Stritch coach Tony Esposito, who was an assistant coach for eight seasons before taking over the program, put it this way.
“Our overall goal is to re-establish ourselves in the TAAC and provide a program for years to come,” he said. “Cardinal Stritch is a small school with limited female athletes wanting to participate in sports. As coaches, we need to be flexible for our student-athletes and their other student activities to provide a positive high school experience and education.
“Our other goal is to provide our seniors with a successful season to end their careers on. We work with focus, commitment, teamwork and reflect on our motto, 'It's not about you, it's about the team.'"
Senior catcher Kenzie Kinney hit .508 in 2023 to go with one home run, 20 RBIs and 26 runs while shortstop/pitcher Cadence Zgurich hit .339 with a home run, nine RBIs and 17 runs. The two seniors are the co-captains of the team.
Kinney finished third two years ago in the Toledo Area Athletic Conference Player of the Year voting.
"Mackenzie is extremely versatile and dependable, almost to a fault," Esposito said. "Cadence is very talented and has a lot of experience."
Freshman Aryanna Alonzo is the starting pitcher.
"She's developing strength," Esposito said, "but she has good spot-pitching to put the ball in play.
Expect second baseman Kennedy Burzynski to be one of the team's best players.
"Our batting order is a work in progress and is constantly fluctuating to find the best outcome for success,” Esposito said. “Besides the ones I have mentioned, six players are experiencing softball for the first time, which makes for interesting lineups thus far. But I am able to mix our inexperienced players between our four good contact hitters.
"Being as young as we are, the success rate will not matter as much as building the foundation for the development of these future stars. We will probably have our fair share of both wins and losses."
