Julius Holt must be beaming with pride from above.
A day after her father Julius passed away, Julia Holt struck out the side in relief in the fifth inning — maintaining CDO’s lead over Sahuaro at that point — to be the winning pitcher Tuesday in her first game with the Dorados after gaining eligibility following her transfer from Salpointe.
CDO (21-1-1) defeated the visiting Cougars 8-0 to improve to 3-0 in the 4A Kino. The Dorados have nine games remaining in the regular season.
Now in the circle… @Julia_Holt_2022 who strikes out the side! ✨
Dorados up 7-0 #DoradoPride pic.twitter.com/eBFSMR0ikh
— Canyon del Oro Softball (@CDOSoftball) April 6, 2022
Julia, a senior, has signed to play softball at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where her father is from.
She has been a standout in recent years for the Desert Thunder Campos softball team.
Julius passed away at age 60 on Monday after a recent illness. He is a former Arizona football player who went on to become an academic adviser for Wildcat athletes before becoming a longtime coach and administrator in the Tucson Youth Football & Spirit Federation.
He took much pride in the accomplishments of his kids with his wife Lisa. His son Justin was a football star at Salpointe before playing at Arizona in 2016 and 2017.
The last time I saw Julius was Feb. 24 when he was sitting by Lisa and Julia before CDO played in the Dorado Softball Classic at Lincoln Park. Julia was not eligible to play yet because of Arizona Interscholastic Association transfer rules, but Julius and Lisa were still there to show their support for their daughter and her team.
Megan Clark went 2 for 3 with a double, run and two RBIs for the Dorados in the win over Sahuaro.
Four of CDO’s players had a 2-for-2 performance — Naya Campos, Zaedi Tagalog, Alina Felix and Mari Asher.
The Dorados tallied 18 hits overall with 13 different players recording at least one hit.
Julia, starter Amelia Strueber, Destanee Nez and Sydnee Wendel combined on a four-hitter with eight strikeouts and no walks.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator five years ago and is presently a special education teacher at Gallego Fine Arts Intermediate in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
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