TEMPLE, Texas — With spring just around the corner, nights on the baseball diamond are finally here, and Central Texas Christian School opens their season by making a little history.
The Lions' baseball squad was one win away from a state title last year, and is once again loaded with talent.
When Central Texas Christian School couldn't field a softball team this season, the Lions gained a secret weapon.
"It's a bigger distance from the plate out to second base and a longer distance of a throw," Jon DuBroc, CTCS baseball head coach, said. But that didn't deter one sophomore from joining the team.
"Well I've always had a spring sport and I wasn't ready to not have a spring sport," Destin Stringfellow, sophomore second baseman, said. "So one day I was messing with my friends and was like 'What if I played on the baseball team' and they said 'No way', but for me it was a challenge ya know."
It was a challenge that she fully accepted.
"She jumped in my door at school one day and said 'Coach, I'm going to play baseball. What do you think,'" DuBroc said.
Destin Stringfellow grew up in cleats and a glove, and she wasn't ready to let that go.
"It's normal to see girls on other teams. On the field, that's not normal," Destin said.
Destin is making history with the Lions, and the best part? She gets to share it with her older brother.
"It's really cool getting to go back to the dugout and see my sister there or do something good and she's right there," Cayden Stringfellow, Destin's older brother and senior outfielder, said. "It's really cool because nobody on the team is negative or anything like that. Everyone is just happy that she's here. It's really fun."
It's the kind of fun that Destin has shared with some of these teammates at school for 10 years, but don't worry, when she takes the heat from the guys she can dish it right back.
"She's got a big brother, so she can handle guys," DuBroc said. "If they give her a hard time, she gives it right back and does it with a smile."
It's that same smile that shined across her face as she stepped out on the field for her first game on Saturday, February 25th.
"I was very nervous," Destin said. "Especially because our opponents were like 'Hold on, there's a female actually on the field,'" Destin said.
There's a female on the field, and she's not going anywhere.
"If a girl can hit a baseball, throw a baseball, and wants to play baseball, then I think she should come out and do it," DuBroc said. "And, that's what Destin is doing."
You know what they say, diamonds are a girl's best friend, and girl power has made it's way to Central Texas!
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