By Marshall Tempest
Reporter
Wekiva softball’s Camilla Delgado is destroying the ball at the plate this season, giving new meaning to the saying of swinging a red-hot bat. The Wekiva Softball team is 1-6, 1-0 in district matchups, but Delgado bats like she is ready to play at the next level today.
According to MaxPreps, Delgado, who is only a sophomore, is ranked eighth in the state in batting average, second in slugging percentage, and 15th in on-base percentage. She also leads her team in nearly every offensive stat, including batting average, on-base percentage, hits, runs, RBIs, home runs, stolen bases, slugging percentage, triples and fielding percentage.
Delgado has a .800 batting average in seven games this season and an on-base percentage of .842, collecting 12 hits in 15 at-bats. With those 12 hits, she has collected 13 runs, 12 RBIs, two doubles, two triples, and four home runs. Three of her four home runs have come in her last two games, with all three being inside-the-park home runs that showcased her power at the plate, her ability to place the ball in the outfield, and her speed around the bases.
Delgado has a slugging percentage of a whopping 2.000, so she is averaging a double for every at-bat. She has also drawn the second-most walks on the team with four, showing her ability to recognize pitches at the plate and not just swing. Delgado has not struck out so far this season.
Delgado is not just a menace at the plate, though, as she excels in every part of the game. She is putting on a clinic on the bases, accounting for eight of her team’s 21 stolen bases in seven games. She has been perfect in the field with a 1.000 fielding percentage, collecting 14 putouts on 25 total chances.
Delgado is the keystone of the Mustang defense, as her perfect fielding makes up for the team’s .735 fielding percentage this season. She has also collected 11 assists and one double play in the field.
In her last two games, against Cypress Creek and Freedom High School, Delgado went 5-for-6 at the plate and racked up five runs, five RBIs, two doubles and three home runs. She accounted for 10 of her team’s 12 runs in the two games.
Delgado is quick to say she’s a team player first and sees her success as part of the team’s overall success. She considers the most significant moments for her this season to be when her team is trying to get the energy up to rally.
“We try our best to communicate with each other, to keep everything going, no matter if the game is going up or down, we try to get the energy going in the dugout,” Delgado said. “We are always cheering on our teammates. I feel like, as a team, we lift each other with lots of positivity.”
Delgado says the team’s energy is a huge catalyst in how they rally when they are down. She says there are moments when the Mustangs’ energy and positivity can reach the other team. Delgado told me that when that happens, the other team starts making errors, which can create a flow that leads to a rally.
Delgado told me that she attributes her amazing play this season to all the training she does when she’s not on the field. In the off-season, she filled her time with watching film of her at-bats, learning how to improve her technique. Delgado told me it’s also about confidence and her mental strength, which she has been working on immensely since her freshman season last year.
“While I work on lots of physical stuff, softball is 90 percent mental,” Delgado said. “I really want to work on my confidence staying up because I know that going into a slump can really put down my confidence. I want to keep lots of positivity. I think that’s really what affected my games this season. To be quite honest, I try to keep everything positive and keep everything going up.”
Delgado told me that her main goal right now is to keep her GPA up and focus on her academics. She knows that is as important as her play on the field if she wants to play at the next level. Her dream is to play for Rollins College, so she will need to be a two-way star on the field and in the classroom.
Delgado said the most significant challenge she has faced in her softball career has been learning new positions. When she joined the team, she had to find a spot on the field where she helped the team best, which meant moving around a lot. She said she has played everywhere on the field for Wekiva in the past two seasons and that it has been a challenge but a welcome one, as she knows it only improves her game.
