The Palo Alto High School girls softball team closed out the season falling short of prior hopes to have a season with a majority of wins.
Finishing the season with a tight loss of 4-5 against Fremont High School, the team’s overall record is 14-13 and 4-8 in the league. The team has lost all games in May, which the girls attribute to star pitchers sophomore Mackenzie Glassford and senior Casey Glassford suddenly quitting.
Freshmen Elizabeth Schnaubelt and Ushana Vivek were brought up as pitchers from junior varsity, and freshman Dhesya Swezey has also stepped in as a replacement.
“Stepping in as pitcher has been fun, but obviously more of a challenge than pitching at the JV level,” Vivek said. “The girls go out of their way to make me feel comfortable, I did not really know any varsity players at first and I now feel at home playing with them.”
The girls lost their game on senior night against Mountain View High School with a score of 10-2 on May 8.
Despite having lost mostly with large margins, the girls had a close game with Mercy High School on May 4, finishing 11-8. Sophomore third baseman Maggie Renteria does not attribute the team’s recent losses to a decline in the overall team’s performance.
“We all have been working on our individual skills as well as working as a team,” Renteria said. “It’s always disappointing to lose but these past losses haven’t really affected us negatively. Actually, we’ve been playing better than we ever have. Since losing our two main pitchers, the whole team has come together and we have really been playing as a team. ”
In the El Camino League rankings, the girls stand third to last, surpassing Fremont, whom stands second to last and Lynbrook High School placing last.
Currently the softball team stands 20th in their CCS division, above cross town rival Henry M. Gunn High School.
Looking to next season, junior Natalie Snyder has hopes similar to those she had at the beginning of this season.
“This season had the potential to be a winning season, but we lost our momentum once the pitchers quit,” Snyder said. “We became more unified as the season went on, though only some players played, which hurt some feelings which is unfortunate yet understandable. I hope next year we truly play as a team and that will bring us a better result than this season.”
