By Cary Volpert
Despite the strong start early on in the season, the girlsâ softball squad ended its season by placing fifth out of six teams in the Mission League with a 3-7 record in league play and an 11-13 record overall. After sporting a 6-3 record in the earlier part of the season, the crew finished with a 5-10 record against both league and non-league challengers.
“The team really stepped up the intensity in the last few weeks and Emma [Katz] really stepped up to the leadership role as captain, not only in the recent weeks but during the whole season,” Chelsea McMahon â10 said.
She pointed to Katz as an essential part of the softball team.
“She was definitely someone that we could all look up to and our team wouldnât have been what it was without her.”
Though the season had its ups and downs, starting catcher Emilia Louy â11 said that “[The] highlight of the season was the 5-3 victory over our long time rival Chaminade, along with the 11-1 victory over Louisville.”
Katz agreed with Louy.
“Besides the win over Chaminade, holding Flintridge Heart to zero runs through seven innings was definitely a highlight of our season since they were the best team in the Mission League.”
Katz added that despite the several highlights of the season, the team suffered down the stretch because of a lack of aggressiveness at the plate and because of inconsistency on defense.
“We were sometimes timid at the plate and we also had a snowball effect on defense where one person would make an error, which was then followed by a couple more errors,” she said.
Notwithstanding the teamâs mistakes this year, Katz said that fans of the softball program have a lot to look forward to next season
“This year we had to go through the basics and fundamentals,” Katz said. “We needed the experience. But now that we have the experience that we needed from playing this year, next year should be a good year for us.”