The Smoke Signal

By: Staff Writer Cindy Yuan

With all of their hard work finally paying off, Girls’ Softball scored their first win in three years against Irvington on April 21, winning the game in a score of 4-3.

The team was able to keep Irvington from scoring more than two runs in the first inning, and caught up by getting hits, including one home run. It was an intense, quick paced game, with players switching from offense to defense as innings went by swiftly, and MSJ Softball emerged victorious. For the rest of the season, they hope to win a few more games against well-matched teams in the league.

The team had a rough start to the season, figuring out how to adjust with many new players and two new coaches.The current varsity softball team is relatively young, with five new freshmen. But many of these freshmen have years of prior competitive softball experience, and they proved a great asset to the team.

Another huge contributing factor to the newfound success of the team are Freshmen Diane Shan, Sierra Raha, and Katrina Trammel. These three freshmen all come from years of competitive softball play, bringing more depth to the team. Shan is an excellent pitcher, but when she fractured her arm, Raha and Trammel stepped up and pitched in her place. “That’s a pretty hard thing to do, that’s a pretty challenging thing to do, to step up as a pitcher when you’ve never played [as pitcher] before,” said Captain Senior Marissa Padilla. These key players also bring a lot of spirit to the team, lifting up the energy in tough times and encouraging their teammates.

Despite not always winning matches, the team keeps an optimistic, positive attitude. Padilla said, “Between this year and last year, I think the biggest thing is our faith in ourselves. We know we can do it, we know we can pull through, so it’s just, what are we going to do about it?” The recent Irvington match reflects this positive and hardworking attitude, and looks to be a huge turning point in their season.

The youth of the team brings a hopeful future in the coming years for the team. Padilla said, “For upcoming seasons I think that our underclassmen right now have a lot to bring to the table.

Photo Credits: http://sai.calu.edu