After the second consecutive season where the softball team couldn’t scrape together even one win, frustration and disappointment filled the Comet dugout. There were many factors that led to CCC’s horrendous year, but one obvious problem was the size of its team.

“Our biggest challenge was having enough players. We only had nine and that was really challenging,” freshman pitcher Anna Palter said.

Any time a team has two back-to-back winless seasons, it’s time to start questioning the program as a whole.

The Comets finished their season 0-26 overall. It’s also important to remember that more than half of the Comet players on the team had never played softball before.

This brought to light the true essence of the term “rookie.”     

“Another one of our biggest issues, was having confidence in ourselves. Sometimes we’d have good defense, and be able to execute good plays, but when we got the ball, we worried about the play being executed perfectly,” sophomore Angelica Espinal said.

“Sometimes we weren’t hitting enough. We’d all get on base, but we’d hit the ball right at the fielders. Sometimes it was a bad pitch and other times it was making mistakes on the bases. We didn’t strategize very well,” Espinal said.

Out of the 26 games the team played, they were outscored 365-28. That means they gave up an average of 14 runs per game.

The team has their work cut out for them if they want to get better next year.

“I think we need to work on having more knowledge of the game, especially situational knowledge. Everyone can improve, though. Our mental game wasn’t really strong. We can work on being confident in knowing where the play is,” Espinal said.

With anything, whether it’s sports or academics, if you want to get better you have to put in the time. This is where the saying, “no pain, no gain,” really rings true.

“There was a core group that came to practice regularly. But there was a lack of commitment.” Palter said.

As a whole, the Comets only mustered up a batting average of .179 and the team’s on base percentage hovered around .241, with a slugging percentage of .215.

One thing is clear. If the Comets want to come back strong and actually be competitive, they must do one thing. Recruit. The Comets absolutely must step up their recruiting game.

“In order to win some games next season, things need to be reborn. We’re going to start from scratch,” freshman catcher Sidney Davis said. Davis also described one of the problems that CCC faced was a lack of effort.

“I’m going to work on my recruiting for next year. I’m trying to make my face familiar to all local high schools, and get familiar with their coaches and players,” softball coach Karolyn Gubbine said.