Enter Jayla Stafford’s world: “I think I have a pretty good thought process for hitting. I look for a ball up in the zone. I have a yes-yes-no mentality: I’m ready, every pitch, to hit. It’s basically seeing and identifying the ball.”
Stafford’s world, which she happily employs in the service of the Bishop’s softball team, is reinforced by her school coach, Al Gomez, with instructions from her travel team coach on the Corona Angels.
The other half of the Knights’ stellar Machado-Tatis-like left side of the infield, Jackie Cosio, is 5 feet 2 inches tall to Stafford’s 5 feet 8 inches height or so and hits from the port side. Jayla led off the Bishop’s attack against Francis Parker in a recent non-league game at home with a screamer the opposite way — on the first pitch she saw — just inside the right field line for a triple.
Cosio, in the second slot in the order, brought her in with a flare/spinning fly that dropped behind the shortstop. The senior also reached third base, but then was tagged out trying aggressively to steal home. Bishop’s eventually eked out a narrow 13-12 win over Parker in the end.
“We’re getting better, improving every game,” said Gomez, in his fifth year as a softball coach. “We had a nice win at Country Day (a Coastal Conference rival) last week.” Gomez serves as a consistent, steadying influence on his team, which also features two-time CIF water polo player of the year Maggie Johnson at first base, plus other players at varying stages of development.
Against visiting Parker on the Knights’ multi-purpose soccer/lacrosse/football practice platform atop the school’s parking structure, sophomore pitcher Reese Cohen limited the Lancers early.
The Knights are a virtual United Nations aggregation of identities, with freshmen Oviya Dhinakar, Safina Abraham, Leela Zaveri-Tabb, and Shyla Gupta playing alongside their fellow classmate, Stafford.
Gomez talked about the school’s unique combination of demanding academics combined with athletic participation: “Someone is playing the lead in a play; someone comes late to practice because (they have another class commitment). Not all coaches understand that.”
“Bishop’s has high academic rigor,” Gomez said. “I think you have people around the community who understand that. Athletes are students first.”
Cosio, the four-year starter at shortstop, shared how her sister Shakira, six years older, played softball at Bishop’s and on travel ball as her influence. “I played other sports, but it came down to either soccer or softball.”
Jackie, who will matriculate at USC next year with teammate Johnson but not play softball for the Trojans, gave insight on her own batting approach: “I’m thinking in warm-ups, ‘Hitting hard, hit in the middle (of the practice net)’. In games, I do less thinking. I feel like the game goes by so quickly that if you let your mind take over, (it won’t go well).”
“My role,” said Cosio, “is to keep people focused, keep the energy up. I can enjoy the school team a little more (than travel ball) because it’s with my classmates.”
