On May 12th, the girls’ softball team played their last game of the year. Coach Erwin Hines said it has been a rough season. He expected that they would win more games, but these expectations were not met.

“The level of commitment from the players [was a problem],” Hines said. “They should begin to work hard during the off-season. It is hard to compete with students who work during the off-season when we do not. That is the only way we are going to get better.”

He said the strength of the team is fielding, while the weakness is pitching.

“Inability to get to hits at critical times [has been a big challenge],” said Coach Hines.

This season, the team also lost their starting catcher because of a broken finger from a follow-up bat. On injuries, Hines commented “I am not sure that you can eliminate injuries from happening… It’s a common risk in sports.”

According to Coach Hines, the strongest players this season were Sammie Jacobs, Sydney Ross, and Carly Wohlfeiler.

In regards to improvement, junior Hannah Rubenstein felt the need to change their playing strategies, teamwork and also more frequent practices and better equipment.

“We were not working hard at all, some were working hard but some were not serious. [The team] is relatively new; we have new people.” Hannah said.

Hannah also commented, “We did not have a lot of communication, did not practice enough and also needed to coach the new people more.”

Regarding the focus of the team, Sammie Jacobs stated, “We’ve been working on fundamental skills and building of the game. We have mostly worked on our hitting.”

To prepare for next year and the coming season, Jacobs felt that the team needs to put in the work and practice during the off-season.

Compared to previous years, this season did not turn out favorably. Jacobs said, “We did not have as good a season as we were hoping. We have numbers, but we need to develop skills.” To her, the team did not do well this season as a result of not winning as many games as they should have, and thus, this year was disappointing for everybody.

On the topic of challenges the team faced, Jacobs commented, “We work well as a team but we are trying to find out who works out best.”

“When we took Orange to eleven innings, we competed with them and really showed what we could do as a team. That was the best moment of the season,” Sammie said. On the other hand, Coach Hines said that one highlight was the game when Sydney Ross hit three home runs in one game.

With hope and determination, Sammie Jacobs commented, “We have a positive look for future and we are hoping to get more support from the rest of our school.”