Softball season ends in first round of CIF

Adrianna DinolfoStaff WriterSamo's softball team ended its season in the first round of CIF, with a loss to Loara.As 2010 CIF champions, the team hoped to defend their position to the best of their ability. Toward the beginning of the season, the team struggled with learning how to play as a team, with a young starting lineup. The talent and fundamentals were there, yet the game results poorly represented the team’s abilities.“We definitely improved throughout our season this year,” sophomore Jamie Hom said. “Although we have struggled, we constantly came back on the field as a team and pushed through it.”Senior Natalie Abel agrees with Hom, pinning most of their errors on the transitional adjustments the team had to overcome."Because we were such a young and new team," Abel said, "we had a lot of mental errors and we just kept making errors on routine plays. Once we started focusing more on mechanics and breaking down plays, we started to improve and by the end of out season we really started to mesh together into an actual 'team.'"As a reflection of their season, the girls emphasize that winning isn’t everything. The experience is what counts, which includes growing as a team and having fun. Even though they did not advance far into the playoffs, they will be able to take comfort in the fact that they put forth all of their effort.As of now, the girls wish to improve on their communication for future seasons. Better communication makes for a fluid, professional game. The team anticipates that their biggest competition will be North Torrance. Having played them in the championships last year, the team is familiar with their perseverance and skill.However, coach Marybell Moreno disagrees.“Our biggest competition (as it’s been all year) is ourselves,” Moreno said. “When we play as a team we’re unstoppable.”Moreno believes that with hard work and focus on the smaller aspects of the game, the girls have the potential in seasons to come.adinolfo@thesamohi.com