Girls’ softball had a tough start to their season, but despite their early difficulties the team is ready for more challenging games to come.

After graduating many starters last year, the team is young and inexperienced with the high school level.

“Our weakness is probably the lack of experience,” coach Kristen Morcone said. “We have only a handful of returning starters so we have a lot of new faces that are still trying to get comfortable with the game of softball.”

The young and very new team is now 3-10.

“It’s kind of been a tough start,” sophomore Mia Mcauliffe said. “We’re getting used to seeing really good competition. We faced a lot of really good teams in the beginning of the year so [we] kind of got off to a rocky start but we’re all making improvements and we’re all getting better. Pretty much we can only go up.”

On Monday April 24, the team finally clenched their first win over Hopedale in a nail-biting finish.

“We were losing 8 to 5 in the bottom of the seventh and we were able to come away with the win,” Morcone said. “Emily Pageau hit a bases loaded, two outs, walk off single so that was very exciting,”

The win over Hopedale was a catalyst for the team’s new attitude.

“It boosted everyone’s confidence on the team,” Mcauliffe said.

Ever since then, the girls are much more determined to do better and they want to improve in ways that are necessary to get another win. Morcone mentioned a variety of things that the team needs to work on- for example, swinging faster.

Senior captain Brianna Calder hopes that they improve on “skills as a team on and off the field, defense versus offense, individually and as a whole such as communication and knowing exactly what to do with the ball when you get it.”

The softball team is finding their way personally and competitively but they aren’t letting their losses hold them back.

“I want to keep the morale of my team up despite the number of losses we’ve had but I don’t see that being a problem because I have a great group of girls and a strong group of leaders on the team,” Morcone said.