Lacee Ogletree is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Westwood High School for AZPreps365.com.

The Westwood Warriors dominated the Carl Hayden Falcons 25-3 in a game which was called after five innings. The Warriors took control of the game early while allowing Carl Hayden one run in the first inning and two more in the fifth inning.

Westwood scored in every inning in this game. The Warriors had six runs in the first inning and then eight in the second, their biggest inning in the game. In the third Westwood tacked on six more runs to take a 20-1 lead before adding five more in the fourth. The girls really got to show off their talent.

Alyssa Dale is Westwood alum in her third season as head coach working hard to rebuild the program. 

“We just always want to keep growing, so we hope that this season is better than last season," Dale said. "We hope that with not just wins and losses, but we’re looking for the culture changes in our program that are going to help us eventually get to where we want to be.” 

Warriors softball has faced many struggles in the past seasons going 8-10 a year ago, good for fourth place in the 6A East Valley Region. They have not made the playoffs since 2019 when they lost in a play-in game. 

“We have our team motto this year, which is team first, being united and supporting each other,” senior Olivia Sainz said.

Throughout the game it was visible to see their teamwork and their character highlighted in the way they supported each other and the way they held their sportsmanship.

“We talk to the girls all the time about commitment and being better every single day and what it means to be a good teammate and so of course we want to see a good season and a bunch of wins but more importantly, we are looking for those  culture changes that are going to set us up for success in the future,” Dale shared.

“Getting to play as a team and grow together,” Sainz said. “This season we have come a long way and have grown as a team.”

Senior Madison Blumer shared one of her proudest moments on the team.

“My proudest moment probably as a team is when we defeated Dobson last year 3-2. We were up the entire game and then we went into extra innings and they ended up scoring and we thought that we were about to lose, because they scored and the score was 2-2. We thought we totally had that game in the bag and Lexi (second baseman Lexi Vasquez) hit her first home run in her entire season and the entire program playing at Westwood, she hits a home run and you could just feel everyone was so energetic. It was probably like 9 p.m. and everyone was cheering. It was probably my favorite and proudest moment of the team.” 

Sainz shares how Wednesday’s win will help the team at their away game Thursday: "Keeping up our momentum."

The Warriors will travel to Shadow Ridge High School to face the Stallions on Thursday.