By Don Ketchum

The softball team from Phoenix St. Mary’s certainly had its share of success in the 2000 decade.

Now the Lady Knights are trying to rebuild the program.

It wasn’t easy, but they took a few steps forward in Tuesday’s (May 20) first day of play in the Desert Mountain Invitational at Horizon Park in Scottsdale.

In its first game in the late afternoon, St. Mary’s slipped past Chandler Seton Catholic in a tiebreaker, and in the nightcap held off a spirited effort by Phoenix Arcadia for a 7-3 victory.

The Bobby Pacheco-coached St. Mary’s squad has a 7-6 record entering Wednesday’s (March 21) second day of the Desert Mountain. The Lady Knights will meet Gilbert Mesquite at 3 p.m. Arcadia (3-9), which fell to Queen Creek 5-1 earlier on Tuesday, will face fellow Scottsdale District school Scottsdale Coronado at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

The tourney continues Thursday through Saturday.

St. Mary’s appears to have a good blend of experienced players and young players with promise.

A couple of seniors who played key roles against Arcadia were center fielder Alyssa “Bumble Bee’’ Madrid and pitcher Jordan Huffman.

Madrid had a bunt single, but her biggest contributions were on defense. She made a pair of difficult catches in the third inning, one on a long run into the gap in right-center and the other when she lunged to grab a short fly just as it appeared it would drop for a hit.

Huffman helped finish off Seton with her pitching in the opener, then came back against Arcadia to pitch the final four innings.

St. Mary’s scored twice in the first inning on a two-run single by Alexa Gomez. She kept herself alive by fouling off several pitches, some of which likely made a few dents in the parking lot.

Arcadia pulled to within 2-1 in the second on a run-scoring single by Shannon Feeney.

St. Mary’s increased its lead to 4-1 in the sixth on a two-run single by Mariah Armendariz, but Arcadia came right back to make it 4-3 in the bottom of the sixth on a two-run double by Bri Payne.

The Lady Knights put together three more runs on four hits and an error to build a comfortable lead. Arcadia’s Shelby Koontz led off with an infield hit in the seventh but remained at first as Huffman retired the next three hitters.