Every high school sport requires players to come and go. After losing fourteen seniors in the past two years, the 2023 Frederick softball season has officially begun. Frederick softball has had to learn how to recoup and assimilate new players as well as returning starters due to the loss of numerous starting players. This was demonstrated by Frederick, who defeated the Cougars 8-2 in their opening game of the fall season at Niwot High.
Yet it didn’t stop there; the Golden Eagles were looking for a winning streak as they hosted their first home game against Skyline High in the 2023 season. Frederick is prepared to handle business and rebuild this season after they sealed a 16-1 triumph by mercy ruling the Falcons in three innings.
As she appears to be taking over the pitching job, replacing former ace pitcher Haley Howell, junior Payton Torres started on the pitching mound versus Skyline. The following returning players are keeping their starting positions for the 2023 season: senior center fielder Mak Sais, senior third baseman Tatum Ross, senior left fielder and pitcher Hailey Simmons, junior shortstop Avery Salisbury, junior second baseman Lani Davis, and sophomore catcher Izzy Horne. They are all already dominating and haven’t seemed to miss a beat since last year.
The recent game versus Skyline is a perfect example of the Frederick softball team’s most recent trend. During the first inning, senior Hannah Johnson doubled for the Skyline Falcons. However, Frederick didn’t let that affect how they played, as they worked hard for three outs in that inning, leaving the Falcons’ runners on base and not allowing them to score and grab the lead. As a team, the Golden Eagles took advantage of every early mistake and opportunity given to them on offense, building a lead of 10-0, which helped allow the returning and newer players to work together in order to win.
The second inning was short and simple; Frederick held onto their lead and prevented the Falcons from scoring with Frederick’s pitching change, Senior Hailey Simmons on the mound. Before entering the third inning, Frederick added six more insurance runs to the board during the second half of the inning to give them a higher lead and help secure the victory.
With one out and a great start in the third inning, the Golden Eagles had a minor setback. Frederick committed a mistake that Skyline took advantage of, allowing the Falcons to advance two bases. Senior Hannah Johnson led Skyline at the plate, hitting a triple to score the runner at second, but she was thrown out at home plate due to a cutoff at third base. Lani Davis, a junior second baseman, then assists Frederick to earn their last and final out of the game.
“In a game like that, it is very hard to stay energized and focused, but I think that we did a really good job pushing past that and getting the job done. Even though there were moments we could have hit our cuts or made the play correctly to make our game clean, I don’t think we played badly.” Senior Hailey Simmons quotes
The Golden Eagles don’t intend to stop there; they still have a lot of this season to play, and they’re trying to soar past their opponents and accomplish their objective of returning to state in early October. Senior Hailey Simmons says, “With how we’ve been playing, I definitely think we could do pretty well this season. I think we just need to clean up small mistakes in the field and offensively since we lost some of our power hitters in our lineup last year. It will be a little harder to get runs across the board, but if we focus on one run at a time and everybody does their job, maybe even add a little small ball to our game, we definitely have a good chance to make a push for state.” Frederick softball will be going through a significant rebuilding process this season, and the team is ready to put in the work and continue their winning streak in their following games of the season.
