The Lady Sharks softball team enjoyed a bounce-back season last year.
Miami Dade College finished with 29 victories—11 more than the previous season—including 15 wins in Southern Conference play.
A big part of the team’s success can be attributed to pitcher Vicky Navarro.
The 19-year-old right-hander, who also played shortstop, added a .356 batting average and 28 RBI.
Navarro is once again expected to lead the Lady Sharks pitching staff when the softball season starts on Jan. 27.
“I like pitching,” Navarro said. “I find it interesting, being able to put out all that I work on and see it pay off.”
Navarro began playing baseball in Broward County when she was three-years-old. But when the youngster turned eight, she discovered her true passion—softball.
At West Broward High School in Pembroke Pines, she dominated on the mound. Navarro was named to the all-county team by the Miami Herald and the Sun Sentinel as a sophomore and senior.
As a sophomore, Navarro was 13-3 with a 1.95 ERA and 122 strikeouts. As a senior, she had a 13-5 record with a 1.25 ERA and 107 strikeouts.
After graduating from West Broward, she caught the attention of Lady Sharks assistant softball coach Amber Plaza while playing in a summer tournament in Orlando.
“She is going to do whatever she has to do to get the job done,” said Lady Sharks head softball coach Gina De Agüero. “She pitches, she hits, [and] she fields her position.”
For the past two years, Navarro has further sculpted her talent on the Miami Marlins girls softball team, a program aimed at promoting baseball and softball in South Florida for youth ages 13-18. Last year, the team made it to the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities World Series, a feat the team had not reached since 1999.
She is now concentrating on her sophomore season at MDC after earning first-team All-Southern Conference honors as a freshman.
Navarro spends about 15 hours a week with her teammates between gym workouts in the morning, softball practice in the afternoon and study sessions in the evening.
“She is there to help anybody, [Vicky] is definitely a team player,” said Gina Gallegos, a right-handed pitcher for the Lady Sharks, who posted a 2.87 ERA last year and added 30 strikeouts. “She is [always] cheering [everybody] on, helping them out in whatever situation they are in.”
The Lady Sharks softball team starts their season on Jan. 27 at 3 p.m. versus Georgia Military College in Clearwater at the JUCO Kickoff Classic.
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