Becker sisters lead Foothill softball into region tournament
Whenever Leah Becker records a strikeout, the Foothill sophomore turns to her sister Kylie Becker at shortstop. They lock eyes, throw their hands up, and do a sort of victory dance before moving on to the next hitter.
They’ve done it quite a bit this season. Throw in the pair’s offensive prowess, and it’s easy to see why the Falcons are confident when they begin the Sunrise Region softball tournament at home against Green Valley at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
“We are literally the dream team,” Kylie said. “We bond really well, we play really well, and going into Green Valley, if we keep that good mindset, we’re golden.”
Kylie, a senior committed to play at Montana, is hitting .514 with 35 runs, 15 walks and 11 stolen bases, all tops on the team. She was an all-state honorable mention last season and is committed to play Division I ball at Montana.
Leah is hitting .462, second on the team, with a team-best six homers, nine doubles and 29 RBIs. She also is the Falcons’ top pitcher, with 78 strikeouts to 17 walks in 101 1/3 innings.
“She’s been hitting pretty good, she hits dingers,” Kylie said.
“She’s always like, ‘I wish I could do that, I wish I had the muscle to do it,’ ” Leah jabbed at her sister. “She watches video and I’m barely swinging.”
Kylie: “I have muscle, I’m just skinny. … It’s annoying.”
The two are the life of a team, but not the sole reason for the Falcons’ success.
Skylar Glaude is committed to play at the University of Bridgeport (Connecticut), Jocelyn Shupp (.388 average) and Makenzie Andrews (.307) have had no trouble getting on base, and Zoe Vandeveer has gone deep three times.
“What we’ve seen from everybody, we have a real chance of doing well,” Foothill coach Tom Mayes said. “We’ve been surprised. We expected part of the lineup to do well and didn’t and the other part of the lineup picked up the slack.”
Mayes likes to talk about what he calls softball’s three seasons. The beginning of the year is tournament season, where he likes to get as many players as possible time in the field. The second season is league play, with the third season begins Tuesday with the playoffs.
And if Foothill can win the region title on Saturday, they can start the fourth season: the state tournament, which Kylie made as a freshman.
“I feel like we can, we have the potential, we just have to pull through,” Kylie said. “To be able to do that again, to be able to go there again, would be a dream come true.”
And this time she could do it with her sister.
“Peace out sister, we went to state together,” Kylie said. “That would be awesome.”
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Contact Justin Emerson at jeme