by Julia Batista
Just as we reported about the baseball team last month, the Fallsburg Lady Comets are only fielding a Junior Varsity softball team this year. In the past, the varsity softball team has struggled during the season, so in an effort to rebuild their program, school officials decided to only have a Junior Varsity team that mixes both the younger and older players together to make them stronger.
“Just having a JV team allows the younger girls to learn from the older girls and develop their skills,” offered Jennifer Davila, a junior, and also the catcher on the team. “It also allows for the team to have substitutes and safety nets if anyone gets hurt since we have such a large number of girls.”
“JV is very different compared to Varsity, since some of us have always been on Varsity and the skill level is very different,” Ms. Davila said, referring to her years on the Varsity team. “We had great seasons as a Varsity team, winning most of our games the majority of the time. But overall, I think that having just a JV team was the best way to go.”
Playing in just their third game of the season on April 19, the softball girls brought home their first win of the season by a score of 6-0 against the Liberty Indians in a game shortened by weather conditions.
Liliana Moody, one of the two seniors on the team, has played softball since the fifth grade and has had a strong passion for the sport since then.
“It’s sad to think that I’m playing on a JV team, considering that it’s my senior year, but I’m going to take this opportunity to spread my knowledge of the sport to the younger girls,” Ms. Moody said.
“Our win against Liberty finally made me feel as though we were an actual team and not just individual players. ”It made me impressed with how the team performed under the extreme weather that day.”
Moody also commented about the fact that it’s her last year playing on the team.
“It’s definitely bittersweet, but I’m going to try my best to help lead the team to a very successful season and hopefully graduate leaving them in a better position than when I joined it,” she said. “I just want them to develop a good, strong Varsity team for the future just like they had in the past while maintaining the lower levels of the sport so that they can bring home a title.”
Hopefully both the Fallsburg JV baseball and softball teams thrive and grow better this year than they have been before. The Hurleyville Sentinel hopes that both programs are able to succeed and that Fallsburg can bring home many more wins!