Aragon girls softball faced a tough opponent on Feb. 25 in their season opener against Livermore, losing 16-2. Livermore came out on fire in the first inning, scoring back-to-back home runs against the Dons. After a pitching change, Aragon freshman Makayla Hafoka shut down the remaining Livermore batters, leaving the Dons down 6-0 heading into their first at-bat.
Sophomore Taylor Workman set the tone early with a line drive deep into left field, but a diving catch from the Livermore outfielder resulted in an out. Aragon freshman Aliyah Adle got the next hit for the Dons, with a grounder splitting shortstop and second base for a single. Sophomore Olivia Mukherjee followed up with a bomb deep into center field, resulting in an RBI double and putting the Dons on the board. Mukherjee tagged up on a pop fly to score the Don’s second run, leaving the score 6-2 heading into the second inning.
Livermore racked up runs in the second, having two more home runs and a grand slam, putting them up 16-2. The Aragon defense struggled to adjust to Livermore’s relentless offense, and went through another pitching change in the third, bringing up freshman Chloe Wan.
“We have a young pitching staff that we need to develop,” said head coach Lizabeth Roscoe. “My number one pitcher [Wan] went in and she didn’t struggle as much as the other two.”
I believe if you play tough you’re going to get better.
Despite several solid hits by the Dons and getting runners on, Aragon was unable to score in the fourth. However, they turned around their defense, and held Livermore the remainder of the game, leaving the final score 16-2.
“I knew the [opposing] team was really good and I knew we still had some things to work on,” said junior Destiny Garcia. “I expected it to be a rough one.”
Coach Roscoe agreed and headed into the game knowing it was going to be a good challenge for the girls.
“We’re a very young team and I knew that Livermore was a really good team,” Roscoe said. “So I was throwing the girls out there knowing it was gonna be tough for us, but I believe if you play tough you’re going to get better.”
With underclassmen making up the majority of the team, this was their first time in a varsity match for many of the players.
“We have two juniors, five sophomores, and five freshmen, so we have a lot of growing to do,” Roscoe said. “We’ve got a lot to work on but it was good for them to see how much faster the game is.”
Despite the result, Garcia does feel there were some highlights to take away from the game, particularly in the Don’s offense.
“Something we did well was hitting,” Garcia said. “We read a lot of the pitches and came back and did better the second time.”
Sophomore Claire Richards was also proud of the team’s mindset and their constant fight throughout the game.
“In the beginning, when there was a home run hit off the pitchers or a bad call, everyone knew to just brush it off,” Richards said. “Everyone didn’t worry about it and we just focused on the next one.”
Mistakes are going to happen and bad games are going to happen, and if we just don’t worry about it too much we’ll get better.
This resilience can be attributed to the strong solidarity of the team.
“The camaraderie of the team together is really good right now early on,” Roscoe said. “They all really like each other and practice really well, play well and support each other.”
Moving forwards the team prepares for a tough league schedule, where they hope to be competitive.
“Coach Liz has made some adjustments as far as who’s going to be playing what position,” Workman said. “So we’ve been working with those adjustments, and also working on technicalities, like first and third plays and block coverage, which we need to fine-tune.”
One specific area of concern that the Dons have been focusing on is fielding the ball quickly in the outfield.
“Something we could have improved on was the reading of fly balls in the outfield,” Garcia said. “There were a lot of bad reads that cost us a lot of runs.”
Overall, the Dons are going to keep their heads up and focus on improving.
“We all have accepted that it’s early in the season and that it’s a new team,” Workman said. “Mistakes are going to happen and bad games are going to happen, and if we just don’t worry about it too much we’ll get better.”
The team’s next game is March 13 at home against Carlmont at 4 p.m.
