Spring is upon us and the girls’ softball team works to prepare for their upcoming season. Since the beginning of the year, the girls have been meeting after school and on weekends to condition and train on important skills such as batting, fielding and communicating.

Sophomore catcher Trisha Speicher is optimistic about the team’s offensive production after focusing heavily on batting during preseason practice.

“We’ve worked a lot on batting, so we should have a strong lineup,” Speicher stated.

“This is the most talented team I’ve had, and it’s just a matter of playing up to potential more often than not…Our strongest quality is having eight returning starters and 11 letterwinners, so we are becoming a more experienced team,” Coach Bill Boggs stated.

This year, the team has been moved up to a more competitive division due to a recent WPIAL realignment. Undefeated WPIAL champion Ellwood, section champion Avonworth along with WPIAL final four and winner of PIAA state playoffs, Steel Valley, will be the major competitors in this year’s season. Boggs predicts that those three teams will most likely qualify for playoffs, plus one of the following: Freedom, Beaver Falls or Riverside.

Boggs believes that in order to achieve their goal of clinching a playoff spot, they will have to be equally talented mentally and physically.

“I have a great coaching staff to help me in guiding the team,” Boggs said.

Speicher also mentioned that in order to clinch a playoff spot they will need to work on communication and working together as a team on the field.

Last season, the girls struggled with the field being in “rocky conditions,” as quoted by junior Lexi Halvin.

“The infield was very rocky and uneven. We even had a practice where we just sat and dug up rocks from the field,” Halvin mentioned.

This year, the field was improved by having 70 metric tons of infield mixing dirt, which will help the playing surface drain after rainfall.

The Lady Bulldogs hope for continued production from Speicher and Halvin, who led the team last season with a combined 30 singles, five doubles, four triples and three home runs and .426 and .358 averages respectively.

The Lady Bulldogs started off the season successfully on March 21 by dominating in a scrimmage against Western Beaver, shutting them out 29-0. The girls faced off with another scrimmage against Avella on March 22, beating them 15-5 . On March 24, they had their first exhibition game, or first recorded game, against Carlynton, winning 11-6.