The Panthers softball season began Friday with a 13-8 win over Hazen.

Bonney Lake returns to the field after finishing last season eighth in state.

The girls tied for second place in the South Puget Sound League 3A and went as far as the quarter finals of the state tournament.

Coach Andrew Sage said the team doesn’t talk about this year’s post season yet.

Sage has been coaching for 21 years and is entering his sixth season of coaching at Bonney Lake.

Bonney Lake lost 10 players from last year and Sage said the team will replace those graduated players with those remaining on the team.

“As a coaching staff, we coach our younger kids as hard as we coach our varsity kids, it helps with the transition year to year,” he said.

This season the Spartans are joining the Panthers in the SPSL 3A division.

Sage said Bonney Lake won’t change its approach preparing for those games.

“We have played them every year,” he said. “You always want to beat your cross town rival no matter what league.”

The next home game for the Panthers is 4 p.m. Friday, March 20 against Black Hills.