Isabella Esquer
Age 10 | School Cesar Chavez Elementary | Grade Sixth
The Imperial Valley Girls’ Softball League 10-U All-Star team is headed to Lancaster later this week to compete in the 2018 Southern California State Championship.
The local squad was able to advance to state play after finishing runner-up in last week’s South San Diego District Tournament.
Helping the team to the second-place finish was starting catcher, Isabella Esquer.
The Calexico native had a solid performance on offense and defense and in the tourney’s eight-game span finished with a .571 batting average, .625 on-base percentage and 10 singles and two doubles.
Behind the plate, the 10-year-old caught all eight games for a total of 44 innings and tallied 43 put-outs, including strikeouts, tags at home, pop-ups, five caught base runners and three pick-offs.
Esquer said she was a bit nervous at the start of the tourney and particularly in the title game, as this is her first year on an IVGSL All-Star team.
“I was a little nervous because the team we played in the championship, we’d lost to them before, but we told them we’d be back, and we did that,” she said.
While the squad suffered a 5-1 loss in the final, it was enough to advance the team to the state tournament, which begins Friday.
“I’m looking forward to being there already and playing because everyone keeps telling us how fun it will be,” Esquer said with a smile. “And hopefully we can make it to the semifinals or the championship game and get to regionals.” My Favorites Pro athlete Kevin Garcia, Minor League Baseball player Pro team San Diego Padres
Class Math
TV show “Teen Titans Go!”
Song “God’s Plan”
Musician Drake What do you enjoy most about your sport? What I enjoy most about playing softball is getting pumped when we score and being in the dugout with my friends, too. What is one of your more memorable moments in your sport? It’s recent. We were tied 7-7 to go into the championship game, and I had to go up to bat, and I made the run. Who inspires you and why? My mom and dad inspire me because they help me and motivate me to not give up and to keep playing and working hard. What are your goals for the rest of this season? My goal for the rest of the All-Star season is to keep improving and working on my catching.