By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
CANBY, Ore– Salem Academy’s Addi Bennett made the most of her senior year with the Crusaders.\
The recent graduated helped Salem Academy reach their first State Semi’s since 1996 and garnered 2A/1A All-State First Team Pitcher to wrap up her Prep Career. Leaving her mark and setting a standard for the Crusader Softball program moving forward.
“I’m super grateful for that honor, and the other pitchers did amazing. It’s just so exciting to end my High School career on that note and then come out to tournament ball and play at that higher level where I can compete,” said Bennett.
Going to Chemeketa in the Fall, where she’ll play softball with the Storm, Bennett got a taste of some of college caliber athlete’s when her Travel Softball team, the Ignite 18U squad, played the Oregon Titans 18U squad. The Titans had some college athlete’s on their roster like Blanchet-grad Regan Rasmussen (Corban), Silverton’s Kate Kofsted (Carroll) and West Albany’s Taylor Thompson (Clackamas CC) to name a few who had just wrapped up their freshman season’s at the College level.
In that particular game, Bennett pitched all seven innings, striking out seven in what would be a 5-3 defeat to the Titans on Sunday afternoon. Down 4-0 at one point, the Ignite cut it to 4-3 before the Titans added one run late as an insurance run to close out the game.
“It’s just getting me that exposure to play with those girls and get to know them. You have to have grit to win games without grit. You’re just going through the motions. As a team, I feel like grit is what it comes down to. You either have it or you don’t,” said Bennett of the game. “It showed us the grit of us as a team the last two innings and show the Titans what we had. We worked through it, and I’m proud of my team because at the end, we played our butts off, and that’s all we can do.”
The Ignite finished third in the 18U State Tournament on Sunday, falling to the Preps Academy-Floyd squad in the State Semi’s to close out the tournament following the defeat to the Oregon Titans.
