by Esther Sun

Opinion Editor

With spring now in full bloom, the LGHS Varsity softball team’s season officially started off with the Cats at 1-1 in league games. For their first game of the season, the girls traveled to San Mateo on Mar. 5 to play against the Hillsdale High School Knights, ultimately winning by a final score of 8-6. The next week on Mar. 11, the Cats fought a tough match against the Westmont High School Warriors, losing 1-7 after preventing the Warriors from making any home runs for four consecutive innings.

Unfortunately, due to instructions by the Santa Clara County Public Health Department to slow the spread of COVID-19, the LGHS administration has suspended all spring sports indefinitely, including softball.

“Considering that softball is something I am so passionate about, the season cancellation is devastating,” said senior Sara Chiala. “I have been looking forward to my senior season for the last three years and the idea of going to school and not going to softball practice or playing in games with all my teammates is really upsetting. I hope they will consider letting us play out the rest of our season after spring break because I can’t imagine having to finish high school without an epic senior softball season with the girls I have been playing with for all of high school, including my younger sister, Lynsey Chiala.”

In last week’s game against Westmont, Junior Alaana Panu hit the sole home run for the Cats in the fifth inning, reflecting afterward that “at practice, we’re really working hard to improve our game. We do have a smaller team this year, so we’re really trying to pick each other up and make sure everyone stays positive.” Last season, Panu achieved a batting average of 0.452 – the highest in the team – and this season she declared she was striving for a batting average of 0.600.

Senior Mira Sharma also excelled in the game against Westmont, pitching the last four innings of the game and only giving up one run – a strong performance despite weathering a shoulder injury last season.

“As a team, I think we could work on our hitting and just our mindset in the beginning of the game,” Sharma commented in a postgame interview.

“Even though it didn’t look like it today, I think we should battle for the League Championships,” Head Coach Randy Frey said after the Westmont game regarding the team’s goals for the upcoming season. “I think we have a team that can win the League Championships, so that’s the number one goal. Beyond that, we definitely want to see how far we can go in CCS.”

The Junior Varsity team has carried a winning streak since the start of the season, beating the Saratoga Falcons with a whopping score of 17-1 on Feb. 24. The JV team also won 2-0 against San Lorenzo Valley on Feb. 24, 6-2 against Hillsdale on Mar. 5, and most recently 6-3 against Westmont.

(Sources: MaxPreps)