Despite facing a high amount of new players and underclassmen, this year’s varsity softball team managed to end the season strong, finishing fourth in league.

“At first we were really shaky,” junior and left fielder Courtney Jones said.

Approximately half of last year’s softball team either left as graduating seniors or moved away.

“We had a lot of new players because we lost a lot of people last year, but at the end of the season we really came together, and we really competed,” Jones said.

This season’s biggest competitors were Irvine High and Northwood High. The team did show improvement when it beat Northwood in league.

“We actually had a really great game against Northwood,” senior and captain Jessica Dallas said. “We lost to them the first time we played them, but then we won the second time we played them in extra innings.”

Despite the odds, the new freshmen on the team stood out towards the end of the season.

“I would say some of our strongest players would be freshman Jo Michaels; she did really well at catching and hitting-wise,” senior and captain Elaine Dai said. “We also had Hannah Sasaki, who was also a freshman, and she was really really fast.”

Throughout the season, the team built up its confidence by concentrating on the technical aspects of the game.

“Our strengths were probably our fielding, and we had really good team chemistry, but we were weak in our hitting so we kind of struggled with that,” Jones said. “But we worked really hard on our hitting, and that really made our games get a little easier for us at the end of the season, and we really got to be better.”

All of the team’s underclassmen and new additions are promising and are also expected to stay and improve as they continue their high school careers.

“This sounds kind of silly, but I would have to say our strengths are potential for the future,” Dallas said.

Incoming freshmen and the experience the team has developed in working with new players leaves the impression that next season will be much more successful than the last.

“You should really give underclassmen a chance to really step up, because when they are confident they can really play their part,” Jones said.