Lake Zurich sophomore catcher Amanda Guercio doesn’t mince words when talking about her softball dreams.
“My dream is to play softball for a team in college,” Guercio said.
It’s a dream that has a strong chance of becoming reality if she keeps performing at the level she has since she became a starter as a freshman, when she batted .490 with 11 homers. She’s off to red-hot start this season, hitting .520 through the Bears’ first 14 games.
“Coming into the season, one of my goals was to improve my contact even though I know my batting average was pretty high,” said Guercio, who does not have a home run yet. “Being a year older and wiser, I know teams will try to make adjustments, so I spent a lot of time in the offseason working on being able to hit the ball hard to all fields. The homers will come soon on their own, I’m sure.”
Guercio wasn’t handed the starting catching job at Lake Zurich. In fact, catcher wasn’t even her primary position.
“I was actually a third baseman on my travel team, even though I’d been doing some catching since I was 10,” Guercio said. “That’s the funny part.”
Bears coach Amanda Rodriguez said it’s been a smooth transition,
“Last year, there were eight seniors in our starting lineup, and Amanda was a freshman calling pitches for us,” Rodriguez said. “That just shows the level she’s at, and how comfortable we are with her behind the plate. She’s become a team leader for us, always communicating, and always seems first to take charge of a situation.
“And she’s a standout defensively. I think she’s only allowed four passed balls. During a game against Hersey earlier this year, she threw out three different runners who tried to steal.”
Senior second baseman Brittney Pettinger sees things similarly.
“We didn’t have a catcher at the beginning of last season,” Pettinger said. “The whole process and experience was neat to see, because Amanda earned this opportunity by proving herself to coach Rodriguez and the rest of the team. Now, she’s one of our leaders.
“She’s probably the biggest communicator when we’re on the field. When we’re doing warmups and she’s not in there, it’s a lot quieter. Her energy and knowledge of the game really rubs off on the rest of us, especially when you consider we’re a young team with only three seniors this season.”
Guercio joined a new summer travel softball program, the Illinois Chill Gold 16U team, which could help her make her scholarship dream a reality. She’s been to a camp at Wisconsin-Green Bay, but doesn’t have a formal offer from anyone.
Barrington coach Perry Peterson, who was scouting Lake Zurich and Buffalo Grove this weekend, watched Guercio play.
“With the position she’s playing, and the exposure she’ll get to college coaches on that Chill Gold 16U team … the offers will start coming soon. She shouldn’t worry as long as she keeps working hard. She’ll be fine. She made several good plays and looked impressive from what I saw.”
Froehlig is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Twitter: @TFroehlig
