Lady Dons softball season springs to life

With returning varsity players and many newcomers, varsity softball coach Bill Laskey is confident in his team. “They’re older, more experienced, and with the nucleus of the young girls coming up, we feel we’re going to have the potential team to win the league,” says Laskey. “I was really blessed because the majority of my good players were sophomores last year, so now they’re juniors,” he says. “They played as freshmen for me so they know the drills.” He says that his senior class has “a crop of them that are pretty good”, but that the juniors are really his “strong point”.

The season officially starts on March 1, but they have two scrimmages before that. “We have a few players that really need to show off if they can hit,” says Laskey. “You have to see how they handle themselves under pressure, how they handle themselves batting, and how they handle themselves with balls hit right at them.”

Laskey says that change does not need to happen this season, but rather, “regrouping.” “It’s really rejoining the teams and trying to have them commit to what they want to do.”

Sophomore Annalise Di Santo, who played catcher for junior varsity last year, agrees. “There are not a lot of changes we need to make. We all just need to make sure we are really focused on softball and our attitudes. Keeping up with schoolwork is a little hard for a few of us, but we keep each other motivated so it shouldn’t be too difficult.”

Girls hoping to make either varsity or frosh-soph attend try-outs for about three weeks, until all players hoping to make the team have finished other sports such as soccer and basketball.
Senior varsity captain Gina Hazelton explains a typical day of try-outs. “We warm up, run around, stretch and then we do some drills.”

Senior Laura Joyce adds, “We kind of introduce [new-comers] to the feel of our team. I feel like our team is a lot different than other ones so you have to know what you’re getting yourself into.”

Frosh-soph coach Carre McLaughlin says, “There’s a lot of talent out there. A lot of new players and the old players came back ready to play. [There are] a lot of new freshmen.”

As for determining members during try-outs, McLaughlin says coaches look for players that are “coachable”, meaning, “they’re willing to make the adjustments we ask them to make. We’ll take some one who’s coachable over someone who has a lot of talent but is cocky and doesn’t want to listen.”

The team’s goal this year is to win the league, which they have not accomplished in the past four years. “Hillsdale took first place last year, so you always want to beat the crown,” says Laskey. “There’s some real good pitchers in our league. Some of them are already going to four-year colleges and we have to beat them.”

The players are up for the challenge, though. “We want to cream Carlmont,” says Joyce.

However, the team members are still able to see the practicalities of their goal, and what will be required of them to achieve it. Joyce says, “We don’t really have as strong pitching as we did last year”, but Hazelton adds, “I think we have the infield and outfield to back out pitchers up this year. We just have to win differently than we used to. I think we have a good chance against them.”

Freshman Erika Assoun says that the junior varsity teams will face obstacles this season, as well. “This year, we were thrown through a loop because junior varsity doesn’t have a pitcher,” she says. “We’ve been trying to recruit a bunch of girls to pitch. The pitcher makes up the team.”

Despite a few minor drawbacks, Laskey is confident that his players are ready. “It’s going to be a challenge and it’s going to be a battle, but at the same time, we’re up for it,” he says. “Our girls know what’s down the road for them and we have to get to that point.”