Lasell softball making history
NEWTON, Mass. (BVM) —The Lasell softball program has been struggling for over a decade. Why is that? They have not had a single winning record since 2009 when the team went 21-19. A couple of head coaching changes did not change much as the team struggled to get some wins and other teams blew them out.
The 2021 season had this team just back to playing softball again, being hopeful to get this team heading towards the right track and bring the program back. This has been nothing short of an accelerated rebuild. The team started 3-0 for the first time in program history. The team did not stop there as in total the Lasers went on to win the first eight games of the season to improve to 8-0. Since then, the Lasers did drop two games to Johnson and Wales, but an 8-2 record is very impressive.
Head coach Sarah Woodside, in her first full season as Lasers head coach, has been the mastermind behind the turnaround, comprising a roster full of incredible talent where everyone plays a huge part to make something special.
Looking at the roster one thing stands out. The team is composed of 11 “first-year” players which are all of the sophomores and freshmen, since sophomores received their first year back due to COVID-19 canceling 2020. The rest of the team is five upperclassmen which are three seniors and two juniors.
On the road to the eight wins, the Lasers have taken down Suffolk, Wentworth, Anna Maria, and Fisher College all in doubleheaders.
A bunch of “first-year” players have taken charge. On the mound, freshman Eryn Sheeley has been the team’s ace pitching in seven out of 10 games while having a 4-1 record with three complete games and 38 strikeouts which is second in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference. At the plate, Sheeley has been the cleanup hitter batting .440. Freshman Ally Kirck, the starting center fielder, has also been terrific hitting .419, also winning a GNAC rookie of the week in the process. Freshman Katie Hopkins, the starting third baseman, is hitting an absurd .484 while leading the team in home runs with two.
The upperclassmen have also been incredible. Junior captain Brianna Gendreau has been insane. Gendreau is hitting .486 which is a team-high. Senior captain Bethany Hector got off to an incredible start hitting .500 through the first eight games but since has had the average drop to .429, which is still amazing. Another senior captain in Nicolette Genkos has been really good on the mound with a 3-1 record and an ERA that is pretty high at 5.26, but it is skewed by one bad performance this past weekend.
The team in total has 10 players hitting over .300 and the team is loving their success. With the way the Lasers are playing, they will continue to break more and more records and place their stake into Lasell lore.
