By Olimpia Kane ’16, Staff Writer

This year’s Middle School softball team has a winning record of five wins and three losses. With twenty players in total, the roster holds mostly seventh graders, with four sixth graders and just two eighth graders. Last year, the team was undefeated; many of the key players graduated into high school, but that didn’t deter these girls! As coach and Assistant Athletic Director Liz Bona-Beach put it, “This is a group of young, inexperienced girls. All that means for the team is that with every game we progress forward…always developing into better players.”

“Inexperienced” is not how many of the players would describe themselves. Pitcher Rebecca Mandelbaum ’16 has been playing softball since she was seven, and third baseman Rachel Wilf ’16 started in kindergarten. Many of the team can boast similar accomplishments. For Hannah Rosenbaum ’16, softball isn’t just a sport—it’s a lifestyle. “I’ve been playing for 8 years, and I love softball. Probably because I’m really good at it!” she says.

Hannah’s teammates seem to have the same opinion. Even at a much younger age, Rebecca Mandelbaum ’16 enjoyed softball because “I liked running around the bases and hitting, and fielding even though at that time I wasn’t that good.” Many teenagers give up the sports that their parents signed them up for as little kids, because they lack talent or lose interest. However, Rebecca has only become more interested in softball. She started out just liking the sport of softball, “But now I really play good so I have a better time.”

It seems that for some girls on this team, being a better player results in having more fun. Experience seems to be rolled into that—after all, practice does make perfect. It also seems to be the stereotype that eighth graders are better than sixth graders; again, experience makes all the difference. But this team seems all about defying expectations. On one of the few games that they lost, a star hitter is struck out by a very fast pitcher. The team is dispirited, and as sixth grader Lauren Katz ’17 gets up to bat, no one is really expecting much. She ends up scoring one of the first runs of the day!

NA’s Middle School softball team likes winning by majorities.  (They won the opener with a score of 27-12.) They also like the two very supportive coaches, Coach Bona-Beach and Coach Guelich, and almost as importantly, the ice cream truck that has stopped by for some of the hottest games! Yum!