Rylee Guthrie catches against Centerville.

Sophomores Ava Armentor and Rylee Guthrie have been playing together for four seasons now and are two of the most experienced players on the Highland Baptist softball team.

The pitcher and catcher duo have also become two of the most important players for the Lady Bears, relying on Armentor’s eye for the strike zone and Guthrie’s powerful hits at the plate to pick up 12 wins so far this season.

Both have been playing competitive softball since they were around ten years old, and have been varsity members of the Highland team since they were in seventh grade.

Guthrie said that while the team has had an inconsistent year, everyone is pulling together to give their one senior player, Bella Breaux, a great final season.

“I feel like we’ve had our ups and downs but we’ve come together as a team towards the end of the season for Bella,” Guthrie said. “We want her to have the best year possible because she’s our only senior. We’ve had ups and downs but we usually wrap it up.”

Armentor said that she enjoys pitching for the Lady Bears, though it does mean that she uses “a lot of ice” as she is the team’s only varsity pitcher.

“I feel like we’ve had a really good season for such a young team, we lost some games but we did not go down easily,” she said. “We have some people who have never picked up a softball before, and they really came through this season.”

Highland has had a new head coach for each season that the two players have been on the team, though Guthrie said that this season is the biggest rebuilding project so far.

“It’s been very fun and it’s been quite the journey,” she said. “After Bella, we’ll be the ones who have played on the team the longest. This year is definitely the biggest rebuilding year that we’ve ever had.”

Highland, currently ranked as the unofficial No. 18 seed in Division IV, will be looking to jump over a few teams into a playoff spot before the regular season ends on Wednesday. The current No. 16 seed, Glenbrook, has 25.20 power points and an 8-12 record. Highland currently have 23.87 power points, though their record is considerably better. After defeating Westgate 19-0 over the weekend, the Lady Bears will have to wait until the official rankings are released to find out if their season is over yet.