Softball team competes in spring break tournament

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The varsity softball team traveled to Myrtle Beach for a spring break tournament. Senior Kelsey Mize (pictured in the first row on the left) said, “I was looking forward to just being in Myrtle Beach and hanging out with everybody – seeing, you know, the different relationships we all have together.”

Gabriella Di Lalla, Staff Writer

The varsity softball team recently competed at the Ripken Myrtle Beach tournament in late March.

Megan Kuhlman is the team’s new head coach and thinks the trip helped with bonding. She said, “As a team in Myrtle Beach we had multiple team-bonding experiences planned which included team meals, a mirror maze experience, escape rooms, and attending the Mayfield boys baseball games to support them. In addition, the team had time to utilize the pools at our hotel and spend time at the beach.”

Lindsey Urban is a senior on the team and enjoyed the shared time together. She said, “Since we only had a game a day, we would have a lot of downtime which is like hang out with each other a get to know one another.”

Because Cleveland’s March weather was cold and snowy, Urban was also excited about the warmer Carolina climate. She said, “I was looking forward to being able to actually playing a softball game without it getting snowed out.”

Senior Kelsey Mize enjoyed the balanced schedule of softball and free time. She said, “We usually had practice first and then we would have a little bit of downtime, and then we would have a game. Or it would just be a game and no practice.”

While the team had free time, Mize says Kuhlman kept the team “disciplined.” Mize said, “We had curfews, [and] we had rules that were obviously set in place for us to follow. But yeah, [Kuhlman] just kept tabs on us in the nicest way possible.”

Coach Kuhlman explained that all the fields they played on were turf and featured more than 15 batting cages. She said, “Hitting has also proven to be an area that we need focus on, so we were able to capitalize on this while in Myrtle Beach utilizing the batting cages.”

According to Urban, the team has a philosophy this year to learn from their mistakes. Urban said, “I feel like that’s a good change in the softball program as a whole because in the past there was a lot of negativity.”

The team finished the pre-season tournament with a 1-3 record. In the regular season, the team so far is 2-1. They play again tonight at home versus Gilmour.