Young Panthers battling early growing pains

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Four games into the season, the Johnston softball team is sitting at 1-3 in Division II. There have been high points, like the 10-8 win over Ponaganset last week, and low points, like the 14-4 loss to Cranston East on Monday.

In other words, it’s been exactly the kind of start new head coach Steven Day saw coming from his young, inexperienced team.

“I think you’re seeing the growing pains,” Day said. “There’s some immaturity but you’re seeing freshmen, sophomores out there. They’re all getting a chance. They’re a strong-willed team. They’re good kids, good players, they’re athletic. They just need work.”

The work so far has come against stiff competition. Johnston’s season opener was against North Smithfield, the Division II-North winner last year. A week later, the Panthers played North Smithfield again. The Northmen are 5-0 thus far.

Monday’s opponent, Cranston East, is 4-1 and is the top-scoring team in all of D-II. Its only loss was to North Smithfield.

“We’ve played all contenders,” Day said. “The next couple of weeks, we’ll have some teams we can be more competitive with.”

Regardless of the opponent, the Panthers are focused on getting better. Unfortunately for them, Monday’s loss was a step in the wrong direction. After hanging tough in a 6-0 loss to North Smithfield on Saturday, the Panthers fell behind Cranston East 5-0 in the first inning. They answered with three runs in the second, but East pulled away from there and clinched the mercy-rule win with three runs in the sixth inning.

“We hit the ball pretty well,” Day said. “Our pitching was pretty good. We kept one of the best hitters in the league to one hit. But we made way too many errors. We don’t normally play this bad. I don’t know why we did today. We’re a lot better than this. It’s disappointing.”

The ’Bolts had 12 hits and scored at least three runs in each of the first three innings. Sarah Nolan had three hits while Jaylyn Lomba and McKenzie Richards had two apiece. Pitcher Paula Frost allowed two earned runs in six innings of work.

After a one-two-three inning by Frost, the ’Bolts came up in the home half, drew three first-inning walks off Alicia Carvalho and capitalized on the scoring chance thanks to RBI singles by Nolan and Brittany Rice and a two-run single by freshman Taylor Sukys.

Johnston took advantage of two errors to plate three runs in the second. Helen Hanley and Haley Hohlmaier had key hits.

East responded with three of its own, though. Richards walked, Alexa St. Angelo singled and Alexis McCarten reached on an error that allowed two runs to score. McCarten raced home later in the inning when a pitch got away.

The ’Bolts added three more in the third inning on key hits by Nolan and Richards then finished off the mercy-rule victory with three in the sixth. McCarten had an RBI single to clinch it.

Hohlmaier delivered a late bright spot for Johnston with a solo home run in the sixth inning.

Through it all, Johnston kept battling.

“They’re very upbeat. They’ll play to the end,” Day said. “Some days, we’re going to be down by a couple, some we’re going to be up by a couple, but we’re going to battle the same every game.”

Hohlmaier, one of the leaders of a big sophomore class, has led the offense thus far.

“She’s been on fire this year, and with this home run today, that kind of solidifies it,” Day said.

Jenn Cioffi and Jordan McHale have done a good job anchoring the left side of the infield, while Carvalho has held her own in the circle.

The rest of the lineup is still in flux, with a lot of players in the mix to earn time.

Sorting out the lineup will be a major focus over the next few games.

“The next few weeks we’ll be working on our defense and solidifying our roster,” Day said. “It’s still wide open. Whoever wants it needs to step it up and take it.”

Johnston will get a break from the top-level competition as it heads into its next two games. The Panthers will visit 1-4 Prout on Saturday at 11 a.m., before hosting 0-5 South Kingstown on Monday at 3:30 p.m.

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