4/10 – BBN; 1, Andover; 16
4/11 – Milton; 2, Andover; 17
4/15 – St. Pauls; 0, Andover; 1
Softball (6–0) extended its winning streak to six after this past weekend, where the team won by 15 points in both its games, followed by an intense walkoff win against St. Paul’s on Wednesday. Off to a dominant start, Softball’s offense has scored 68 runs over six games, with three opponents mercy ruled due to an insurmountable lead in points. Its strong defense contributed to its three shutout games, only allowing six runs since the season started.
Last Friday, the team finished their road series at BB&N with a final score of 16-1. Andover’s offense was led by a pair of home runs from Audrey Gotha ’28 and captain Rihana Gomez ’26, with pitcher Morgan McDonough ’29 allowing one run in four innings. Gaby Potter ’27 described the strong camaraderie and energy the team displayed.
“Everyone’s super committed and always hyping each other up, which is really great. We’ve been super positive and even in moments where we’re struggling, we pick each other up. Our positivity on this team is definitely contagious,” said Potter.
Softball’s streak of hot bats continued at their first home game of the season against Milton on Saturday. The team’s hitting produced 17 runs, including Gomez’s 4 Runs Batted In (RBI) performance and Victoria MacKenzie’s ’28 strong 2 RBI, going 4–4. McDonough highlighted Co-Captains Gomez and Ashley Schuman ’27 for their performance at the plate and on the mound.
“Rihana and Ashley are incredible players. Ashley is an incredible pitcher, and she has earned so much for us. She’s gotten us so many wins. Shutting people down is what she’s good at, and it was really impressive. Even to a team that might not have been the hardest win is she doesn’t she doesn’t lose focus, and she stays out. And Rihana just at the plate is basically unbeatable. When it comes games like that, she rips the ball and she stays through it,” said McDonough.
On Wednesday, Softball hosted its second home game against St. Paul’s. The matchup saw an epic pitcher’s duel against Schuman and St. Paul’s Lucy Kaiser ’27. Both pitchers allowed 0 runs in 7 innings, but ultimately MacKenzie’s walk-off single in the bottom of the 8th drove in the winning run. Mila Fan ’28 elaborated on the game.
“It was our first real, very close matchup, which was very good for the team to have intense competition and have our practice and preparation be tested. We went seven scoreless innings, zero to zero, and we had to go into extra innings. It was definitely a team effort. There were no solo home runs that brought the win home, but lots of bunting and just getting base owners across. There was a really fantastic single by Victoria MacKenzie to bring home the win. It was really a fantastic way for the team to come together in the face of very hard challenges,” said Fan.
Fan expanded on some of the challenges during the match that impacted specific positions, such as the intense competition between the skilled pitchers and the game’s mental aspect.
“[The] St. Paul’s pitcher was very skilled, and we had to adjust our hitting against her. We definitely made those adjustments toward the end, which is what was able to get us the win. We had a very dominant pitching performance on our side as well by one of our co-captains, Ashley Schuman, which helped us stay in the game and ultimately win. The hardest part was mentally, everyone had to stay involved and not let one error turn into multiple. Focusing on the next at bat, the next hit, the next pitch, and it was really a team effort that brought back,” said Fan.
McDonough discussed the team’s central focus moving forward.
“My biggest concern about today was that we were gonna take advantage of the wins that we had and not be prepared. We realized that not every team is going to be as easy as some of the other teams that we’ve played. We’ve got to jump on the ball early and continue to stay locked and ready for when the teams are good,” said McDonough.
She continued, “We work a lot at practice, on our defense and our offense specifically. Staying dialed in through all of our games, not just the hard ones, because sometimes it’s easy to lose focus in the games that you’re winning by a lot. It’s important to just stay dialed in on all of them.”
Softball will play at Nobles and Greenough this Friday and will host Choate on Saturday.
