Going into the season, Cottonwood head softball coach Natalie Wonnacott knew she had most of her starters coming back from last year’s team, giving her Lady Colts a shot in the arm. 

“There has been a lot of excitement. We had most of our team return from last year and added some new faces,” said Wonnacott. “The girls have been working really hard in the offseason to get some experience and confidence. It has been fun to see them grow and get better, and we are excited to see what we can do this season.” 

If game one was any indication, Cottonwood might be a team to contend with. 

The Lady Colts hosted Summit Academy March 4 for an afternoon showdown and gave up two runs to start the game. In the bottom of the first inning though, Cottonwood bats exploded for 15 runs giving the Colts a 13-run lead going into the second inning. 

In the second, Summit Academy again scored two runs. But Cottonwood got out of the inning ahead by 11 runs. All the Colts needed to do? Tack on a few more insurance runs—which they did by scoring nine more. 

Cottonwood (1-0) then held Summit Academy scoreless in the top of the third to take a 24-4 win, via a 10-run, three-inning UHSAA rule. 

For the Lady Colts, senior Savannah Staheli got the victory. She pitched 2.2 innings, allowing just two hits and striking out seven. Junior Piper Wilking slammed a three-run home run, and six Cottonwood players combined to hit 10 RBI. 

Preseason games will continue sporadically through March and April, but Region 10 play started March 6 with a game at Park City for a Cottonwood squad that trots out eight seniors: Tialer Mounts, Melody Hernandez, Lola Grover, Gisel Oxlaj, Ashley Tiaxca, Taylor Clark, Itzia Lopez-Mendoza and Staheli. The team will be co-captained by Mounts and Grover, two kids that have been regular rotation players for Cottonwood for several years. 

As juniors, Mounts and Grover hit .357 and .253, respectively, hitting 10 total RBI for this Lady Colts team that also got significant contributions from sophomores such as Samanntha Rodriguez and Breeya Busey who led last year’s team with .438 and .410 batting averages and RBI, with nine apiece. 

Combine that firepower with that of Piper Wilking, who got 41 valuable plate appearances last year as a sophomore and already showed off her range with a three-run bomb in the season opener and Jane Wonnacott who as a sophomore had 36 appearances at home plate and got on base enough to score nine runs last season, and it’s a loaded lineup at Cottonwood in 2025-26. 

The one other interesting wrinkle to this season for the Lady Colts, said coach Wonnacott, is that a number of new schools have been added to the mix in Class 4A Region 10. 

Those schools include Highland, Murray, Judge Memorial Catholic and East for a region that will also have Juan Diego Catholic and Jordan, along with Park City. According to coach Wonnacott, she and her players look forward to the challenge. 

“We are in a new region and that is always fun to get to play some new teams and see how that goes,” the coach said.