Myla Mexico ’27 winds up for a pitch.
4/13 Andover: 17 Lawrence Academy: 4
4/17 Andover: 1 St. Paul’s: 0
Softball (2-1) secured its first two wins of the season. It competed against Lawrence Academy (Lawrence) on Saturday and St. Paul’s on Wednesday. After many canceled games at the beginning of the season, the team has now started a two-game winning streak.
Going into the game against Lawrence the team put an emphasis on improving its communication and consistency. Madison Hugo ’25 noted the impact those have on the team’s ability to bounce back from in-game mistakes.
Huge said, “I would say communication was the main thing. Our coach has us do a bunch of drills at the start of our fielding practice, so we try to throw the ball around and get to as many passes as we can, which can be frustrating at times if you make a mistake. It can also be a little stressful since you don’t want to make a mistake and be the first to break the streak, but I think that also really helps us because when we do make errors, or when things don’t go our way. It’s really helpful to just have to break it down and pick ourselves back up, which I think has been helping out ability to regain momentum in the game.”
Angie Ceballos Cardona ’25 shared that during the season opener, the team struggled to take advantage of every opportunity that was presented to it offensively. In this game, the team was able to score many runs, leading to its first victory of the season.
“This game, we were really trying to focus on capitalizing on opportunities that we had to score runs. That’s where we were kind of lacking our first game. In the end, we hit a lot this game, and we scored a lot of runs. Our main goal was to put runs on the board to support our pitchers who have been pitching really great thus far for us,” said Ceballos Cardona.
Co-Captain Emerson Buckley ’25 discussed some shortcomings in the game on Wednesday against St. Paul’s. Although the team won, Buckley shared areas for improvement offensively.
Buckley said, “Our defense was amazing. We definitely should’ve put more runs up, but we executed when it mattered. Overall our offense does need to step it up, but I’m confident that it will come with time and practice.”
Although Buckley shared that the team has room to grow on offense, she described how its work on defense paid off.
“We’ve been working really hard on defense and staying composed in the field, which I think definitely translated. It’s nice to see the work we are putting in show up in important moments like these,” said Buckley.
Moreover, Buckley applauded Ashley Schuman ’27 for her performance and leadership on Wednesday. In addition to her impressive pitching, Schuman secured the win for the team with her hit.
Buckley said, “Ashley Schuman had an amazing game. She pitched a shutout and hit the game-winning walk-off. Ashley is a freshman, and she carries herself like a leader on this team. I’m consistently impressed by her.”
According to Ceballos Cardona, the team will continue to work on its confidence. She highlighted its importance in a sport like softball.
“This upcoming week, we have a few tough games, so we’re just going to focus on playing together, communicating, and playing with the same confidence that we did this past Saturday. Confidence is a really big part of our sport, and that can make a really big difference in games, so we’re just going to keep working on that. We’ve been working really hard on and off the field,” said Ceballos Cardona.
Softball will play against North Reading High School on Friday and Choate on Saturday.
