Beyond their years: Freshman class igniting Weymouth softball's long-awaited winning start

WEYMOUTH – Softball tryouts at Weymouth High this spring didn't have the same feel.

The Wildcats' last winning season is eight years in the past, and the 2023 team – prominently staffed by eighth graders – suffered 13 losses in its first 14 games, finishing 3-18 overall. The air this year, though, was different.

Those middle schoolers are now freshmen, but head coach Vanessa Haen referred to them, often by accident, as upperclassmen.

"It got away from me that they weren’t," said Haen, who is in her fifth season.

“The eighth graders that played for me last year came back, what I would consider, three years down the road," she said. "They came back as completely new players, and they came back wanting to win.”

Weymouth (5-2) has already exceeded its win total from last year in the first seven games.

Freshman shortstop and lead-off hitter Bella Pires is a year removed from a switch from playing baseball, and hit for a .490 average as an All-Scholastic eighth grader with 10 extra-base hits and 28 stolen bags. She "followed in the footsteps" of her older brother Johnny, a junior on the school's baseball team, growing up.

She played baseball until eighth grade. In her first year of varsity softball, Pires adjusted quickly to the delivery of a softball pitcher (she had a slugging percentage of .857 last year), and she also adapted to the shorter distance to toss out a runner at first from across the diamond.

"I had to control how hard I throw, to not take their heads off," Pires said with a smile.

Returning starting pitcher Maddie Smith, also a freshman, added a new pitch to her arsenal in the offseason and tossed a no-hitter (while collecting six RBIs at the plate) in a 15-0 win over Randolph on April 9.

That was just one indicator that this year's team was ushering in a new era.

“We were a very young team last year, and it was only our eighth grade year so we had hope," Smith said. "We’re going to do better eventually.”

When they were last together on the Weymouth High diamond, the Wildcats slugged out a 10-9 win over Scituate in the season finale to end on a high note. That not only ended a five-game losing streak, but also a season in which the team suffered 13 losses by 10 or more runs.

Pires' response?

“You don’t get down on yourself," she said.

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A handful of players continued to play club softball together on the South Shore Patriots, a Rockland-based team, in the offseason.

With this team of just two seniors (Sam Kelsch and Lindsay Fleming) and one junior (first baseman Paige Sellon), Haen resumed the high school team's practices this spring emphasizing the basics: middle infielders communicating with the outfielders and outfielders communicating with each other.

Freshmen Anna Primo, Viv Palazzo and Nattallia Druther form the outfield trio, with sophomore third baseman Riley Flatley, freshman second baseman Robin Flatley, Pires and Sellon aligned in the infield. Freshman Abby Reed starts behind the plate.

“I’ve never had a team that wanted to win in the way these girls do," Haen said. "I’ve also never had a team that works the way these girls do. And they play for each other. They are so supportive of each other.”

The schedule ramps up later in the schedule as more Bay State Conference clashes pop up. The Wildcats have dropped games to Walpole (13-1) and Braintree (11-2) so far, with matchups against Milton, Needham and Newton North still ahead, plus a rematch against the rival Wamps on May 15.

Aside from Braintree, the Wildcats are unbeaten against fellow South Shore competition, though, clinching convincing victories over Scituate (17-7) and Randolph (15-0).

“They’re seeing that when you put the work in, you get the results you want," Haen said. "It’s cool to let them see that now because I don't think the same teams are going to want to play us next year. For them to get it this year, so they can get the competitiveness for next year, that will be really cool.”

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Beyond their years: Freshman class igniting Weymouth softball's long-awaited winning start