The Lynnfield softball team lost to a talented Pentucket team 10-1 on Monday. Despite the loss, there were positives to take according to Lynnfield Head Coach Hector Longo.
“Pentucket is undefeated and the best team in the league,” Longo said.
Pentucket has “the best pitcher in the league right now” according to Longo in Molly LeBel. LeBel has over 600 strikeouts in her career.
Lynnfield lost some key players from last year’s team. This team, however, is continuing to build chemistry each game. Longo said he was proud of how his team competed.
“We lost three very key pieces in a pitcher, center fielder, and third base,” Longo said. “We’re kind of learning as we go along here. We have two new pitchers and a lot of new faces around the field. We’re going to get better. We’re young, but I felt the girls competed ok today.”
When asked what were the positives he could take from the game, Longo spoke highly of two of his freshmen.
“The first two positives are my two freshmen. Angelia O’Hara had our only hit and she’s hitting 0.429 entering the game today. She’s going to be something special, she was 1-for-3 today,” Longo said. “My other freshman, Lilly Gately, pitched pretty well in relief today. She only allowed one run in 2.2 innings.”
Longo believes that both O’Hara and Gately will develop into great players for Lynnfield.
“The freshmen have been great for us. Angelina is hitting cleanup for us and is our second-best hitter this year behind senior Morgan Hubbard. Angelina has done a great job stepping up to varsity,” Longo said. “Lilly is going to be a really good pitcher in the future. She’s taking the ball anytime we need her and she already has a win. She throws a lot of strikes and she did a really good job coming in today. She got out of one jam and then worked two pretty solid innings only giving up that one run.”
Another player Longo praised was senior Morgan Hubbard who’s been battling an injury but played on Monday.
“Morgan hasn’t been able to practice the last two weeks because of a hip flexor, but she is living up to the billing as a returning All-League player,” Longo said. “She solidified our defense and she hit two shots today that Pentucket unfortunately caught. We’re going to rely on her the rest of the way.”
Lynnfield will look to bounce back on Wednesday when it travels to Ipswich with the first pitch slated for 3:30 p.m.
