Western’s Chaffin, Pines’ Ortega are 7A-5A Broward Softball Players of the Year
Western’s Cheyanne Chaffin and Pembroke Pines Charter’s Destiney Ortega each found themselves in situations that weren’t quite familiar, but kind of felt that way at the start of this past season.
Chaffin was on a new team after transferring from West Broward. But several of her teammates had played travel ball with her growing up, making the transition easy.
And Ortega was wearing the same jersey she has since the sixth grade, but had multiple new teammates with several being younger.
Neither missed a beat, though.
Each had stellar performances again this season while leading their respective teams to the state final four.
Chaffin is the Miami Herald’s Broward Softball Pitcher of the Year for Classes 7A-5A. And Ortega is the Player of the Year in that same group.
Chaffin, a junior, led Western to the state final in Class 7A while Ortega, also a junior, led Pines Charter to the state semifinals in Class 5A.
For Chaffin, it was a different feeling after she lost to Western in the regional final the prior season.
In her first season pitching for the Wildcats, Chaffin went 14-5 with a 1.41 ERA and struck out 165 batters in 133 2/3 innings.
A tough 2-0 loss in the state final against Oviedo Hagerty left Chaffin and her teammates with plenty of motivation for next season.
“I think I accomplished a lot, but definitely next year we’re going for that championship,” Chaffin said. “I grew up with a lot of the girls on that team so it was awesome and a crazy ride. It was so much fun because they supported me through it all and my whole infield was there helping me.”
Ortega started pitching for Pines Charter in sixth grade and made the varsity since that year.
Her goal since has been to get the Jaguars another state championship the way they used to frequently in the past.
This season, both in the pitching circle and at the plate, Ortega powered a young roster made up mostly of underclassmen and even some middle schoolers the way she was when she joined Lines Charter’s softball team.
Ortega went 18-6 with a 1.62 ERA and struck out 172 in 133 ⅔ innings. She also hit .417 with eight doubles and had 25 RBI.
But Ortega said the biggest strides her team made on its way to advancing to its first state final four since 2018 was in learning how to bond regardless of how old you are.
One of the most helpful bonds Ortega said was with her catcher, sophomore Isabella Pascual, her teammate since the sixth grade.
“You need to be friends with your teammates and really early in the season we worked on team bonding and we really liked to hang out with each other,” Ortega said. “Whether you were in sixth grade or a junior, we created a big sister/little sister bond and it helped us.”
