By Allison Goldsmith
I&M Sports Editor
W ith senior leadership, plenty of experience and impressive starting pitching, the varsity softball team is armed and ready for another shot at a stellar season.
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Photo by Bevin Bixby
Senior co-captain Cassie Moran, left, and junior Parinda Darden take part in the first day of softball practice in the middle school gym Monday. |
The Whalers were the talk of the island last spring with a perfect 18-0 run through the regular season schedule. The top-seeded team earned a first-round bye and a home date with Provincetown in the quarterfinal round of the Division III South sectional tournament. Nantucket squeaked out a victory and matched up against Diman in the semifinals. The talented Bengals dismissed the Whalers 7-1. The Whalers finished the historic season 19-1 overall.
“It was an early exit for us, but by the same token it was as deep as we have ever gotten, the semifinal round. We have never been that far before,” head coach Chris Maury said.
The Whalers hope that with a more challenging schedule, they will be more prepared for their postseason opponents this year.
“We have a good schedule. It is a competitive schedule,” Maury said. “We tried to get schools we knew we could compete with. They are probably a little bigger and a little better than us, but that is really the kind of competition you want. It is going to prepare you better for tournament.”
The Whalers’ biggest strength heading into this season is the return of three experienced starting pitchers.
“We had a great nucleus of pitching last year. Pitching has really become a strong point of the program, which is great to see. We have a lot of kids that are interested at all levels,” Maury said.
Senior Olivia Hull is coming off an eight-win season where she struck out a team-high 73 batters.
“She had a great year last year. I expect her to basically do what she did the last couple of years, which is to improve. She will be the number-one pitcher,” Maury said.
Juniors Grace-Anne Tornovish and Jess Guevara had five wins each last year and return to anchor the rotation.
“They both did a great job last year and got some good game-time experience. We know we have depth at that position,” Maury said.
With all that depth in the circle, Maury will be able to use the season to develop three young pitching prospects at the junior varsity level. Kelly Reid, Kate Godlesky and Morgan Tornovish all had strong seasons at the middle school level last year, and can use this spring to ease into the high school speed.
“We are going to have a very good JV team. With the caliber of pitching that we are going to have, they will be very good,” Maury said.
Forty-one players signed up for the high school softball program, 13 of whom are returning varsity players. The Whalers lost two key seniors to graduation last spring – third baseman Maryanne Bradley and left fielder Steph Norris – but have plenty of senior leadership heading into this season.
“The great thing last year was we had an undefeated regular season and a lot of kids got playing time, a lot of kids got experience and a lot of kids are coming back,” Maury said.
Seven seniors return to the squad including captains Cassie Moran and Molly Lentowski. Moran quarterbacked the defense and handled the pitching staff from behind the plate last season, while Lentowski was the power in the Whalers’ lineup with a team-high 31 RBI.
“Cassie over the last couple of years is probably one of the more underrated players. Cassie has worked very hard and has been rock solid behind the plate. She has gotten better each year,” Maury said. “Molly is a power hitter, she is an RBI hitter, but also has a very good eye at the plate.”
“The area we need to work on the hardest, I think we need to improve defensively. With the schedule we are playing we are going to be challenged more defensively. We need to make sure we are strong in all nine positions all of the time,” Maury said.
When they aren’t on the mound, look for Guevara and Tornovish to return to starting positions in the infield. Last year Guevara played at first and Tornovish at second. Sophomores Lindsay Fry and Shantel Hanniford also started last year and return to shortstop and center field, respectively.
Hanniford led the Whalers’ offense last season with 36 hits and 25 RBI; and Guevara connected 32 times and drove in 25 runs.
Returning varsity players Katie McInerney, Spencer Perry, Jess Norris and Whitney Butler are all contenders for starting positions and playing time. Sally Benson and Parinda Darden also saw some starting action last year.
“We will see what we got and put it all together in the next couple of weeks,” Maury said.
The biggest question mark defensively will be at third base.
“Third base is a position we are going to look at a number of people in. That is going to be a big hole to fill. We are going to look at some of the returning players we have and some of the kids that may or may not come up from the junior varsity level from last year,” Maury said.
Offensively, the Whalers are going to continue to work on putting the ball in play and taking advantage of the small diamond. They will be focusing on bunting, baserunning and taking advantage of mistakes by the opposition.
“I am hoping that seeing more consistent pitching will improve the offense. Sometimes you really struggle when you go from a good pitcher to a putz pitcher,” Maury said.
New to the schedule this season will be two games each against Division I Sandwich and Nauset and Division II Martha’s Vineyard. Division III Ursuline Academy is also a new addition to the schedule.
Varsity Softball
4/1 at Blue Hills 3:45 p.m.
4/2 Martha’s Vineyard 3:30 p.m.
4/4 at Chatham 3:30 p.m.
4/5 at South Shore Voke 11 a.m.
4/7 at Cape Cod Tech 3:30 p.m.
4/11 Provincetown 3:15 p.m.
4/12 Nauset 1 p.m.
4/14 Mashpee 3:15 p.m.
4/15 at Provincetown 3:30 p.m.
4/19 Ursuline 1 p.m.
5/1 at Nauset 4 p.m.
5/2 at Ursuline 4 p.m.
5/8 Cape Cod Tech 3:15 p.m.
5/9 Parker Charter 3:15 p.m.
5/10 at Sandwich Noon
5/12 at Martha’s Vineyard 3:30 p.m.
5/15 Chatham 3:15 p.m.
5/16 at Sacred Heart 3:45 p.m.
5/19 Blue Hills 3:!5 p.m.
5/21 Sandwich 3:15 p.m. |
