LYNNFIELD — Thanks to a healthy turnout at tryouts, things are looking up for the Lynnfield softball team.
Once again, this year the Pioneers’ program is extremely young with just two seniors, three juniors along with 10 sophomores, 10 freshmen and 10 eighth-graders.
Nonetheless, Lynnfield coach Peter Marinelli’s optimistic.
“Like last year, we’re very young and it’s going to take some time,” Marinelli said. “We have a lot of inexperience when it comes to pitching and fielding, but we do have some talent. We’ve had scrimmages where we have made some good plays only to drop routine balls, so focus is our biggest problem, but it’s still early.”
Last year, the Pioneers’ season was a roller-coaster ride, but the team turned a huge corner as the season wound down with several quality performances against the iron of the Cape Ann League. They finished the regular season 10-8 to earn the No. 14 seed in the Division 3 North tournament where they defeated Manchester-Essex 7-6 in the preliminary round, then won a 23-0 mercy-rule contest against O’Bryant in the first round. Their luck ran out in the quarterfinals, losing to Amesbury, 12-1.
The Pioneers lost only one senior to graduation in Hayley O’Brien. But her spikes will be hard to fill as she pitched nearly every inning of every game the last two years. A fixture in the circle for three years and the ace of the staff, O’Brien helped lead the Pioneers to two tournament appearances in three years.
The 2018 Agganis softball North MVP, O’Brien has continued her softball career at Fitchburg State where she’s serving a dual role as a utility player and relief pitcher. She belted her first collegiate hit, a triple, March 15 in the Falcons 17-5 win over Keystone. O’Brien has appeared in 11 of 18 games for Fitchburg, which is off to a fast start at 12-6.
“Hayley was a huge loss for us considering she was really our only pitcher for the last three years,” said Lynnfield coach Peter Marinelli. “But so far, things are looking good with one of our sophomores, Reilly Ganter. She played first base last year, but did a lot of pitching last summer and has been taking pitching lessons on a regular basis, so we’ll see as she has no varsity experience pitching. She throws strikes for the most part, like Hayley, so we’ll need to be patient as she adjusts to the varsity level.”
More good news is the Pioneers are returning eight starters, including three-year catcher Allie Wing, who’ll serve as captain.
Sophomore Chloe Shapleigh also returns for a second season at shortstop. She had a breakout season last year as a freshman and was named to the CAL Second Team all-stars.
Also back for a second varsity campaign are senior Kendyl LaConte, junior second baseman Taylor Tringale, sophomore third baseman Jillian Babine and junior outfielders Jenna Freni, Sam Lebruska and Breanna Serabian.
“Hopefully the kids, even though they’re very young, will be ready to buckle down, work hard and do what they need to do to be successful,” said Marinelli. “If they do that and we have a pitcher who can consistently throw strikes, we should be in good shape. Last year at the end, we put a scare into several good teams and proved that if we play good, clean softball, we can play with anyone, so I’m hoping that’s what we will see this year from the start.”
With Ganter moving into the circle, the only open position is first base and freshman Sadie Gearan has emerged as the leading candidate.
“She’s a hockey player and is a very good athlete,” said Marinelli. “She has lots to learn but so far has looked good at first.”
Another promising newcomer is sophomore Jenna Brodigan, who Marinelli said is versatile and capable of playing multiple positions.
The Pioneers have only two non-league games on their schedule, both against East Boston. Their season begins next Wednesday at East Boston (3:45).
The Pioneers don’t have much time after that to get ready for their first league game next Friday at home against CAL rival and Division 3 North champion North Reading, which finished the regular season undefeated.