With a promising future ahead and powerful leadership by the upper-classmen, the softball team has been very successful so far and is looking to keep it up as the season reaches its end.
The team is 15-3 against PIL teams and 24th in the state ranking, earning them the top seed in the PIL. In almost every PIL match this year, the team has won by more than six runs, even against their toughest opponent this year, Franklin.
“Franklin was first, and they had beat everyone. But we played them and beat them by 10 runs,” senior co-captain Lilah Carey said.
Moreover, in the preseason games, the team was matched up with a lot of tough opponents. They played against Putnam, a top 15 team in the 5A level, and won. They lost against Southridge, a top 15 team in the 6A level, but it was a close game. The effort gave the team hope for the season ahead.
“When we started competing and winning some of those games we were like, oh yeah, we’re gonna be able to crush this season,” Carey said.
Team chemistry has been a key factor in the team’s success this season. Even though the team lost four seniors last season, the team has stayed together throughout the offseason and have gotten stronger than ever.
“One of our co-captains helping organize summer workouts definitely helped connect the team,” sophomore Isabel Hale said.
According to Carey, to build chemistry within the team, you have to trust each other up and down the lineup, from the first batter in the lineup to the ninth. This has been an ability that the team has benefitted from this season.
“Everyone’s doing really good in the lineup, everyone’s been able to hit and even in games where we struggle. I feel like we’ve been scoring runs in the last couple innings and beating everyone,” Carey said.
Along with getting a lot of runs, the team has also pitched very well, allowing no more than four runs in 11 of the 13 PIL games played. The star pitchers are Hale and Kaylie Schmitz, who have struck out batters left and right in just their sophomore years.
“Our pitching has been phenomenal this year, Izzy Hale and Kaylie, they’re an unstoppable duo,” senior co-captain Mercedez Berduo-Flores said.
With the record the team has now, the goal for this season for them is to fight for and win that elusive number-one spot in the PIL, thus punching a ticket to the state playoffs—and possibly even a home game in the playoffs.
“We wanna win PIL, we wanna win all the games we’ve got. We only have one loss, so I think we’re gonna be able to do that,” Carey said.
Something the team will try to work on as the season wraps up is staying focused and not getting down on themselves, along with helping others when one of their teammates gets down on themselves. Berduo-Flores emphasized this, expressing the importance of supporting the underclassmen and supporting them through a mistake.
With tough matchups ahead along with games to win, the team hopes to keep this successful and historic season going and hoping to give a great sendoff to the seniors and make them proud.
“I just wanna say I love this team so much, and I think we have just a really good group of girls and a great community and we’re killing it,” Carey said. “Just wish more people would come out.”
