Swampscott softball: New season, new coach

The Swampscott High softball team will have a new look on the bench this season.The Big Blue lost a couple of key players to graduation and added a new coach and coaching staff.Swampscott athletic director Frank Kowalski replaced Annamaria Addonizio as the head coach during the off-season. He’ll inherit a team that didn’t qualify for the state tournament last year, but has a solid group of returning varsity players that includes pitchers Kirsten Vinal and Cortney Fletcher.Click here for a photo gallery.Vinal missed a good chunk of last season due to an arm ailment, but Fletcher picked up the slack. Among her wins was one against Marblehead, one of the top teams in the Northeastern Conference South. The Big Blue also return the other half of the battery: Moe Bradley, who spent the winter playing goalie for the combined Marblehead-Swampscott girls hockey team.”She throws the ball harder than most guys,” Kowalski said.Swampscott does have some big shoes to fill on the left side of the infield with the loss of shortstop Marissa Gambale and third baseman Mallory McGrath to graduation. Gambale, Kowalski said, accounted for about 30 percent of the team’s offense with her hitting and base stealing. She’s now at Merrimack College, where she plays soccer, and McGrath is at Salem State College.The good news for Kowalski is that in addition to his battery, he has plenty of returning talent including captain Alex Wilson. Wilson played outfield last year, but could find herself in the infield. Sophomore Kelly Birchmore was injured last year, but she’s healthy and could also find a home in the infield. Also look for sophomores Merry Ball, who played outfield last year, and Lindsay Marini, who can play just about anywhere, to be in the lineup.”The good thing is that I don’t have any preconceived things about what to expect and where kids should play,” Kowalski said.Kowalski, who coached varsity softball in Chelsea for 10 years and at Pope John High School for one year, said he has high expectations for this year’s team. He said in his two years in Swampscott, the team has struggled.”The program has struggled, not because of a lack of talent, but the chemistry on the team,” he said. “It seems to me the team chemistry issue is so important and that’s something we have to work hard to develop. Everyone has to respect each other.”Kowalski’s assistants are Nicole Piperidis, a teacher in the Swampscott schools, and Christine DeCourcey, who coached at the freshman and junior varsity level. Jen Regan and Melissa Simbliaris will coach the junior varsity. There is no freshman team.