The high school JV softball team has had a great season so far. With one loss and three wins, the team is going strong. However, the team was a little different this year as they had four eighth grade players; Kristen Kohler, Lily Ferragamo, Natalie Vann, and Jessica Woodhams. However, just because they were younger than others on the team, the dynamic wasn’t any different.
Their first game was against ACS Cobham at Canons Park on April 18. “We were apprehensive at first as we had never played as a team before,” said ninth grader Theo Longboy. With one strikeout and two plays to first, the three outs had been made and the Eagles were up to bat.
“Batting made me really nervous, I hadn’t batted before and I wasn’t sure what the pitching would be like,” said Woodhams. However, batting went very well for the Eagles. Isabella Philp, a ninth grader, and Woodhams both hit home runs, and by the end of the inning, the Eagles had 7 runs.
Everything was going smoothly and the Eagles kept adding runs, but in the fourth and fifth innings, things went south. “For some reason, we lost our flow,” said tenth grader Kate Farrell. “It was only our first game but we had been fine up to that point.” In those two innings, Cobham accumulated 10 runs. However that didn’t get the Eagles down and they fought back strong and finished the game with an impressive 38-10 score.
The following Wednesday, April 21, the Eagles had a game against TASIS. The game went very well for the Eagles. They had a total of six home runs. One each was hit by Vann, Woodhams, tenth grader Helen Craig and Caitlin Welch, and two by ninth grader Isabella Philip. The Eagles ended the game with a total score of 26-6.
The next game the Eagles played was by far their hardest because the team they faced wasn’t a JV team. “It was their varsity team, so we didn’t know what it would be like,” said Kohler. On April 27, the Eagles traveled to ACS Hillingdon. The game started out badly with the top three in the lineup all out on a fly ball and two strikeouts. Hillingdon had solid batting and got three runs. The Eagles were still shaking from their last up at bat and got no runs the next inning.
However, the Eagles held Hillingdon, only letting them get one run. By the end of the inning, they tied up the score, 4-4. The Eagles came back strong, but Hillingdon came back stronger. The final score was 10-5 Hillingdon.
After this loss, the Eagles were done, but they didn’t get their spirits too low as they had another game. On Wednesday, May 4, the Eagles went to ACS Cobham. “Unfortunately, it was a very easy game,” said Kohler. “The innings went by fast as there was a five-run mercy rule.” Cobham only got one run in the whole game, and the final score was 22-1 to the Eagles.
So far the Eagles have had a great season. They are excited to face Hillingdon again on May 16 before they compete in the LSSAs on May 21at TASIS.
