Just keep swinging, coach says

On a rainy Wednesday morning inside the gym at Concord-Carlisle High, coach Lisa McGloin had her softball players get to work on their hitting.

Inside a batting cage, a pitching machine was set to pepper the low-and-outside quadrant of the strike zone. Along a wall, players stepped up to tees and focused on their mechanics, taking top-hand and bottom-hand swings. Others jumped toward a tee, settled and swung, honing their balance at the plate.

It was a hive of activity that emphasized the offensive part of the game, which happens to be the team’s greatest strength this season.

Thanks in part to the graduation of last year’s Dual County League Small Division MVP, Galen Kerr (now pitching at Wheaton), the Patriots (4-1) don’t have much experience in the circle. But McGloin has helped her players adopt a mind-set to score in bunches in order to win on a consistent basis this spring.

With five of its top six hitters in the batting order set to play in college next year, the team believes it’s up to the task.

“We have to score eight to 10 runs a game to win or to guarantee that we’re gonna win a game,” McGloin said. “We’re going to let up some runs, so early in the season we have to score more. We put a real high emphasis on our offensive production. We know if we don’t score runs on a given day, we’re not going to win.”

McGloin’s goal at practices is for each player to get somewhere between 100 and 150 swings. For her seniors at the top of the order, that’s anything but a chore.

“It’s huge,” senior cocaptain Angela DeBruzzi said of the constant repetition.

“We’re really fortunate to have coaches that really know what they’re talking about, and take the time to work with us individually on our swings. Everyone swings a little different, but the mechanics are the same. There are so many different drills, so many different components to the swing. We know we’re never going to get better without that bat in your hands, so every day it’s really important to make the most of it, even if it’s raining. We have two good hours to utilize and continue to get better.”

Through five games, the team has scored 67 runs. Each player knows her job and has the intention of carrying it out to the fullest of her ability with every plate appearance.

Hitting leadoff is senior shortstop Allison Colleran , the team’s most consistent hitter for average and an on-base specialist. The cocaptain has committed to play at Ithaca College next spring.

She strikes a balance between taking pitches to get a feel for what an opposing pitcher can do while still being ready to pounce on a pitch she likes early in the count.

“I’m just trying to get up and start something,” Colleran said. “My goal is just to get on base and start the rally.”

Ali Della Volpe has hit in the No. 2 hole, and she has proven to be the team’s Swiss Army knife at the dish. The Middlebury College commit switched from being a righthanded hitter to a lefthanded one as a freshman while working with the varsity. Whether she’s swinging away, soft slapping, power slapping, or bunting, she can do damage with the bat in a number of ways.

“I’m trying to get on any way I can and move the runner,” she said. “It really depends how they’re playing slap defense. I just look and go off of that. If they’re close to the bags, I’ll bunt and beat it out. If the outfield is shallow, I’ll try to put one over their heads. It varies depending on the situation.”

Sophomore Scout Boynton , a former baseball player who has been playing softball for about a year and a half, also helps set the table, while DeBruzzi and Julia Veitch are proven run producers in the No. 4 and 5 spots.

Veitch will play at Worcester Polytechnic Institute next year, while DeBruzzi will play both basketball and softball at Bethany Lutheran in Minnesota.

Skidmore-bound senior Casey Attonito hits sixth.

McGloin, who says Attonito would be a top-four hitter in most lineups, sees it as a luxury.

“We have a ton of returning girls this year making an impact,” said DeBruzzi, who hit .476 with 4 home runs and 33 RBIs last season. “As cheesy as it sounds, hits are contagious. When we start hitting, we keep going. We just have to be OK with not being perfect, and staying confident, knowing the person behind us is going to pick us up if we make a mistake.”

Pitchers lead Tigers

Through the first five games of the baseball season, the Newton North pitching staff had only allowed one run. It continued to sparkle with a 7-1 win over perennial Catholic Conference power Xaverian Brothers that brought the Tigers record to 6-0.

While coach Joe Siciliano wasn’t sure how his pitching staff would look coming into the season, he is pleased to see their hot start.

“They’ve been pitching all winter long,” Sicilano said. “They hit the ground running. Our first game of the year, we had been outside once or twice, and you really couldn’t tell the difference. The pitching was on and you would’ve said it was midseason.”

Senior starters Tommy Hodgson , lefty Teddy Rodliff , and Dylan Spordone have been key in limiting opposing offenses. Juniors Theo Resnick and Curtis Beatrice have provided reliability in relief.

Each pitcher has a different style. Hodgson is more crafty, while Spordone reaches the mid-80s with his fastball, and Rodliff is a combination of power and precision. But each also adheres to Siciliano’s philosophy of working quickly and throwing strikes.

Together, the staff is averaging 12 strikeouts per game. Siciliano knows the earned run count will rise as the season continues, but he hopes his staff can stay on track with the effort they’ve given.

“All you want to do is go out and play hard,” he said. “You might get a break here or there and lose a game or win a game, that’s the way it goes. But you’ve got to practice hard and play hard. You can’t rest on your laurels.”