By: Ashley Young — Correspondent

Sharon High’s softball team kicked off their 2022 spring season by traveling to Milford High to face the Scarlet Hawks. The Eagles kept up with Milford for the regular six innings, forcing an additional two innings. Unfortunately, the Eagles fell short losing just 4-3.

Senior captain Trinity Payne led the Eagles from the pitching mound. The Simmons College commit tallied 18 strikeouts accounting for the majority of Milford’s 22 outs. 

Payne says that the source of Sharon’s challenges are errors in the field. “They had a lot of timely hits, so if someone got on base because of an error, they would get a hit which led to a run. We also had a lot of errors in the field,” said Payne.

Senior captain Ciara McAuliffe says that despite the loss, the team hit well overall. “Hitting-wise, we were doing really well. Mya Grossman had a really good game with two hits and got on base twice. Savvy Gray also had a number of good hits deep into the outfield,” said McAuliffe.

Senior captain Savvy Gray says that learning to work as a team will be the team’s greatest challenge. “I think that it’s definitely going to be a learning curve on how to come together as a team just because there are so many new players in the program,” said Gray.

“I think it might be difficult for some players to learn about everyone’s different playing styles but I think once we’re past that, the different levels of experience will benefit our team,” added Gray.

Varsity coach Heather Poliferno says that every team member played a valuable part in Monday’s game. “What worked is the fact that everyone contributed in some way, whether it was an important catch or a walk at the right time, everyone played an important role,” said Poliferno. 

The Eagles will face Taunton for their home opener on Friday to close out their first week of the season. Poliferno says that the team will work on their quickness in the field. “What we will work on for future games will be our sense of urgency—diving for a ball to get the out, throwing a runner out when they aren’t expecting it,” said Poliferno.

Poliferno says that the girls have been working hard on their skills during practice and are looking forward to the rest of the season. “The Hockomock League has a number of very strong teams, so we are looking forward to taking them on this season,” said Poliferno.

“I think this was a great start and is a good sign of a successful season,” said McAuliffe.