Gabriella Potter ’27 readies for a powerful swing.
Wednesday 5/22 – Andover: 4, Brooks: 1
Softball (10-2) competed in the Big East tournament over the weekend then played its second to last game on Wednesday. Andover was eliminated from the tournament after a close loss to Brooks. However, the team turned its defeat into fuel and came back to beat Brooks scoring four runs.
Gabriella Potter ’27 noted the team’s performances in each game during the tournament. Despite its moments of trouble, Andover was able to keep the spirits high. This led to a collective focus to fight back and stay strong.
“Even though we didn’t win, I thought that we performed really well against each team. We battled back each time we were down, and we kept each other going. And that helped us to keep each other’s energy high so that was really awesome,” said Potter.
Madison Hugo ’25 discussed the positivity of the team. According to Hugo, every player contributed in their own way, and the team worked incredibly hard to keep the spirits up. The support from everyone made for an encouraging environment.
“We’ve done an amazing job this year and this season of fostering a positive mindset and atmosphere in the dugout which has really helped us. Everyone on the team has really worked to uphold that no matter what position they play and no matter what their role on the team is. There has just been really high energy and lots of cheering with massive amounts of support from everyone involved,” said Hugo.
Potter shouted out Co-Captain Emerson Buckley ’25 for her hard work in defense and noted her own homerun.
Potter said, “Emerson made a great play at second base. She played amazing at shortstop, and her defense has been very good since the start of the season, her hits as well. I also hit a homerun on Sunday, which was nice as well, but I believe Emerson played incredibly well this entire season.”
On the days leading up to the tournament, Hugo mentioned one of the team’s values is its mindsets. Girls Softball took part in creating goals about individual performances, as well as the bigger picture of being a good teammate.
Hugo said, “We do a lot of goal setting and talking about our mindset before the game, which I think helps point us in the direction of motivation of how we want to play individually, and how we want to be good members of the team. I think it also adds to the atmosphere that we foster that brings us success.”
Before its game on Wednesday, Hugo also noted what the team would work on in preparation for its second game against Brooks. After already facing the team, Andover learned one of Brooks’ main strengths, which was fast pitching. So, during practice, Softball developed its skill set against pitchers similar to Brooks by hitting against pitches from Ashley Schuman ’27.
“We’ll definitely focus on hitting against faster pitching which is something Brooks has, their pitching is really incredible and hopefully we’ll practice pitching off of Ashley which should give us a better basis on how to pitch against Brooks on Saturday,” said Hugo.
On Wednesday, Andover won its game against Brooks by three runs. Buckley was proud of the team’s performance and she mentioned how its energy early on aided the team to its big win.
Buckley said, “We were all really excited because we all really wanted to win this game. So, I think just the fact that we got the momentum going early and putting up runs early was just really big for us. Everyone in the dugout was really happy and cheering each other on and we had a lot of energy, so that was good.”
Buckley additionally discussed the strengths of the game, which was having productive bats, something the team lacked previously. Andover was also able to stay consistent with its defense, as it did in the Big East tournament.
Buckley said, “After this weekend, we lost that Brooks game because we didn’t hit well. So, going into this game we were focused on having productive bats, even if that means you’re getting out, at least moving a runner or scoring a run was great. That’s what we were really focused on in that game, and also staying consistent with our defense because we played great defense all weekend. So putting the two together was what we were focusing on.”
Andover will face Exeter on Saturday.
