LYNN — The past few weeks have been about gaining familiarity for the English softball team. With Ashley Aldred as English’s new head coach, the Bulldogs are catching up to the learning curve that comes with a change in the dugout.
“We still have a lot of work to do but we have a lot of potential this season,” Aldred, a former softball player at Salem State who most recently served as English’s assistant coach, said. “The girls are buying into what we’re doing. We’ve had a couple scrimmages. Our pitching has some work to do but other than that our girls have a lot of potential.”
In addition to their normal practice schedule, the Bulldogs have scrimmaged against Swampscott and Melrose over the past few weeks. A firsthand look at her team in a live-game setting has gone a long way, Aldred said.
“That helps a lot,” Aldred said. “It shows us a lot of what we need to work on. We do a lot of different drills and stuff every day at practice. The scrimmages show us what we need to work on, especially defensively with different cut-offs and where girls need to move. The scrimmages show us a lot in terms of what we need to finish up to prepare for the season.”
The Bulldogs underwent no shortage of growing pains last spring. If there’s one positive as a result of last year’s lumps, it’s that English returns a nucleus of players with plenty of varsity experience.
Juniors Julia Chen (second baseman/pitcher), Gealina Chicon (center fielder) and Julianna Perry (shortstop) project to lead the team.
“I expect a lot from them,” Aldred said. “They’re all juniors. This is their third year in the program. It’s the second year on varsity for all of them. Those are the key players that we expect a lot from playing wise and in a leadership aspect as well.”
Offensively, Aldred feels the Bulldogs are in a good place.
“We’ve had good bat to ball contact in all our scrimmages,” Aldred said. “We’re trying to get them to use their whole body to hit, not just their arms. The hand-eye coordination is there for most of them, primarily. Now we just have to work on baserunning. It already looks better than last year. A lot of these girls got varsity time last year so they should be used to the level of pitching they’re facing now.”
In the circle, it’ll be a team effort this season. Freshman Janessa Lopez has looked sharp through the preseason. Sophomore Ashley Martinez is battling her way back from an injury. Junior Elena Sierra, along with Chen, will also see innings in the circle.
“Our pitching staff kind of doubled in size over the past year,” Aldred said. “That’s a big positive. The past two years we’ve only had two pitchers. Last year it was tough, especially with all the rainouts when we had to play five games in a week. It’s great that we’ll be able to pitch by committee this year.”
Holding their own in the Northeastern Conference will be easier said than done for the Bulldogs. Aldred believes it’ll come down to English bringing its best effort on a daily basis.
“I’m expecting the competition to be tough,” Aldred said. “I like our schedule that we drew this year with the GBL teams. We play Danvers and Gloucester in our crossover and those will be tough but every game will be tough. We have two games with Lynn Tech and I expect those will be tough. If we show up ready to play and our pitchers throw strikes, I think we’ll be competitive.”
English opens the season Friday afternoon (4) when the Bulldogs visit Tech.
“They’re excited,” Aldred said. “It’s a long preseason. It’s about four weeks until we start our season from tryouts. They’re excited to go out, compete, see what we’re made of and try to get some wins.”
