Suffolk Christian Academy needed a good spark to help it restart the engine of its softball program that had been off since 2014.

Senior Brianna Farrenkopf provided that spark, pitching the entirety of the season opener against host Alliance Christian Academy on March 11 and helping the Lady Knights win 23-3.

Her performance led to her becoming the Duke Automotive-Suffolk News-Herald Player of the Week.

Through five innings, she threw 10 strikeouts and gave up only three hits.

“I think I did really well considering it was our first game, and I hadn’t been pitching for a while,” Farrenkopf said.

She had not played organized high school softball since 2014, as Suffolk Christian lacked the number of interested players in 2015 to field a team. But she also had little preseason prep time this year since she played for the Lady Knights basketball team.

“I think we might have had six practice days in between the two sports,” SCA softball coach Robert Lester said.

Farrenkopf said, “Yeah, we didn’t have a lot of time at all, so I had to jump in there and work hard.”

And she surprised herself with her first-game performance, “because I wasn’t expecting my arm to be ready, especially since I played the entire game,” she said.

Farrenkopf, who also went 2-for-5 at the plate, showed her coach some important things about herself.

“She’s a good athlete, and she’s scared more of letting her team down,” Lester said. “She wants to be the best she can for her teammates. She puts her heart into it to do her best and to perform at her best.”

These traits are important for a leader, and Lester said, “We’re counting on her for her leadership.”

From the first practice of the season, he has been stressing the prioritization of sacrifice over self, and he hopes they all buy into it.

“So far, I think she’s done a good job at that,” Lester said of Farrenkopf.

One of Farrenkopf’s teammates, freshman Penelope Franklin, noted that the senior pitcher brought a lot of leadership in the season-opening win and possesses a leadership presence overall.

“Whenever she’s around, I think we try our hardest,” Franklin said. “First game, she came out there for us, and she pitched really well, and I think we all held together a lot better because of that. We came in and hit really well.”

Farrenkopf’s early preparation for the game of softball came when she was 5 and started playing T-ball.

“It was kind of a family thing, because my family has always played sports and my brothers play baseball, and so my dad just started me when I was young, pretty much,” Farrenkopf said.

Her father, Daniel Farrenkopf, noted softball specifically has become a family activity thanks to a local church league.

“The boys and I actually play on a softball team together, and Brianna,” he said.

Yvette Farrenkopf, Brianna Farrenkopf’s mother, noted they played for Family Harvest Church in the fall and will be back in action this spring.