The John Stark and Hopkinton softball programs have a rare commodity among all spring sports this season – starting lineups full of championship experience.
The canceled 2020 season left most teams short of veteran players this spring, espeically all the defending-champs, who tend to be heavy with upperclassmen. But Hopkinton started six sophomores when it won the D-III title two years ago, and all of them are back this season, which starts on Monday for the Hawks. Stark, which also opens on Monday, started four sophomores when it won the 2019 D-II title, and three of them were starters as freshman when the Generals won it all in 2018.
“Top to bottom there is real talent in this program,” Hopkinton coach Dan Meserve said of the Hawks, and the same is true of Stark.
Senior Izabella Nelson started in the circle for the Generals during the 2018 and 2019 title runs, and she’s closing in on 400 strikeouts for her career despite losing last season. Nelson had 10 strikeouts, and drove in Stark’s first run, in the 3-1 championship win againt Merrimack Valley in 2019.
Seniors Brooke Patnode, Lillian Stogner and Kacie Weston are the other three returning starters for coach Gerry Morin, now in his fourth year with the Generals. Patnode and Stogner were also starters on the 2018 title team, and the two of them delivered at the plate in big moments during the 2019 playoffs – a Stogner RBI was part of the key rally in the 10-2 semifinal win against previously unbeaten Milford, and Patnode had a leadoff double in the seventh inning of the final against MV’s Sadie Barton and eventually scored an insurance run.
Barton, now a senior, is back for Merrimack Valley. She pitched every inning for the Pride during the 2019 playoffs and battled Nelson pitch-for-pitch in the final. Senior catcher and infielder Emma Steenbeke is the only other returning starter from that D-II runner-up team, and she’s also the only other senior on the Pride’s roster. Merrimack Valley will look to those two and its three juniors – Abby Allen, Meg Murray and Liv Lacasse – to lead the way as the underclassmen adjust to the varsity level.
“We will get better each game and we’re excited about the opportunity to play high school softball,” said Kevin O’Brien, MV’s long-time AD who is taking over as the softball head coach this season.
Coe-Brown was also part of the 2019 D-II semifinals, but the Bears have just one starter back from that team, which earned the No. 2 seed in the regular season and lost to MV in the semis, 14-4, after giving up seven runs in the first inning. That lone returner is senior catcher Autumn Stevens, who was a D-II Second Team pick in 2019 and is committed to playing at Southern New Hampshire University next year. Stevens is a great foundation, but there will likely be a learning curve for Coe-Brown this season.
“We turned over almost a complete team after missing last year, but we will work and we will compete relentlessly with a great young group,” Bears coach Dave Allis said.
Like Stark and MV, Hopkinton returns its 2019 ace. Megan Kimball-Rhines, now a senior, allowed just two hits in the Hawks’ 2-0 D-III championship win two years ago against Campbell. That was the school’s first softball title since 1994, but Hopkinton won’t have to wait that long again if Kimball-Rhines and the five other returning starters have something to say about it.
Meserve, who is also the school’s athletic director, also started Brooke Carlson, Maurgan McGrath, Julia Baer, Maddy Follansbee and Kally Murdough as underclassmen in 2019, and they’re all back this spring. Murdough, a junior infielder, was a Second Team Division III pick two years ago as a freshman. Sophomores Maddie Carmichael and Kyanna Landry, and freshman Keegan St. Cyr have all impressed in the preseason and will add to Hopkinton’s deep talent pool. Senior Jordy Barrett will also see some time in the circle for the Hawks.
Bishop Brady also returns a ton of talent, especially for this season, with five starters back from the 2019 team that reached the D-III quarterfinals for a second straight year – seniors Ami Rivera, Jayden Johnson and Halle Laramie, and juniors Isabella Rivera and Ashley Brust. Johnson, a pitcher, and Ami Rivera, a catcher, were both Second Team D-III picks in 2019 and Laramie was an Honorable Mention.
Brust and Isabella Rivera will solidify the infield defense for Freddy Rivera, Ami and Isabella’s dad who is now in his seventh year as Brady’s head coach. He’s happy to have senior Riley Marsh back on the diamond this year and thinks underclassmen Margaret Sheehan, Gwen O’Keefe, Mia Wagner and Kylee Potter have great potential.
“I’m super excited to watch this team play this spring after losing a season,” coach Rivera said.
Pembroke Academy returns four juniors who showed promise two years ago as freshmen at the varsity level – Whitney Moses, Summer Pescinski, Brooke Davison and Charlotte Corbitt. The Spartans reached the D-II final four in 2017 and 2018 under coach Ashley Gladu, who is now in her sixth year with the team. Pembroke went 8-8 in 2019 and lost in the first round of the playoffs, and the Spartans had a strong class of 2020 seniors and were very disappointed about losing last season.
“We’re looking forward to finally getting back out there and playing some games af ter losing out on a promising season last year (PA had a strong class of 2020 seniors). We’re just happy to be playing softball,” Gladu said.
Bow has a new coach in Stacy Boyden, who will lean on the leadership of senior captains Katelin Howe, Annika Geiben-Lynn and Brooke Biehl to help the team develop. Those three seniors are returning starters, as is junior Kelly Harris, and the four of them will anchor the Falcons’ infield defense. Boyden likes what she has seen so far from varsity newcomers Hannah McGonigle, Lily Wright, Emily Kiah and Amelia Clark.
“A lot of these girls have played together in travel ball, so they have already built a strong chemistry with each other and it shows in practice,” Boyden said.
Jim Bailey begins his fourth season as Hillsboro-Deering’s head coach with four upperclassmen on the roster and, “a good group of freshmen and sophomores, so we’re hoping for good things to come. We’re just happy the girls get a chance to play this year.”
All of the girls from every team will get a chance to play in a season-ending tournament, if their team elects to compete and is COVID-free, of course, since the NHIAA softball playoffs will be open and seeded randomly.