The JV softball team started out their first district game against the Hendrickson Hawks. Taking everything they’ve learned over the years and this past offseason, this new generation of JV softball fought hard against the Hawks.

The first inning started off smoothly with shortstop Sofia Figeroa ‘19 catching a popped up hit to secure the first out. Later, a walked batter and a hard-hit triple advance, the Hawks earned a 1-0 score. Shortly after, Figeroa stopped another ball from going into the outfield but advanced all the runners, leaving the Lady Warriors with one out and a 2-0 score to hold them at. After pitcher Bella Gallardo ‘21 sticked out a batter for the second out, left fielder Carolien Van Heemskerck Pilis ‘19 caught a pop up, the Lady Warriors got ready to attack back and gained back the points separating them and the Lady Hawks’ 0-3 score.

Bottom of the first inning started with Maddie Clark ‘21 being walked to first and Figeroa sending her to second on a single to the outfield. With two runners on and one out, things begin to look up, but in the end more strikeouts will send the Lady Warriors back into the dugout 0-3.

“I feel like we tried our best,” catcher Justine Garcia ‘21 said, “and we made a few mistakes that we could’ve easily avoided but we still tried our best. We just took it as it was.”

Throughout the top of the second inning, things would prove to continue to be difficult. A walked batter went on to steal her way to third base and then score after a passed ball left the defense scrambling. This pattern would continue until the Lady Warriors were unfortunately runruled, meaning the other team had scored five consecutive runs in a single inning (0-8), forcing the Lady Warriors to go back to the dugout and prepare to hit, which ended in three consecutive strikeouts, but did nothing to damper the team’s courage and enthusiasm to go into the next inning.

Now about halfway through the game, the Lady Warriors know that keeping the Lady Hawks where they were was the most important thing. And for the most part, more hard plays and well-earned outs did the job: the Lady Hawks returned to their dugout after only gaining three points on the Lady Warriors, which was an important step forward (0-11).

“It was really exciting that I was able to [score a run],” Rech said. “They were all cheering me on which was so fun because that’s the spirit of a team, to have people rooting you on and even though they maybe hadn’t done the same thing like that they were still super [excited].”

Finally, at the bottom of the third, the Lady Warriors showed what they are made of with Chloe Rech ‘21 scoring the first and only point for the team. Though it was not enough to win the game, it showed the Lady Hawks and the other teams that will play against the Lady Warriors soon that this JV team was ready to either go down swinging or get back up again.