Bromfield varsity softball wrapped up its season with a 2–17 overall record and a 0–8 league record, but despite a season of struggles, the players came together as a team.
“We took a group of girls that didn’t really know each other … and formed a bond,” senior pitcher and Captain Kiley Russell said.
On Tuesday, May 22, the Trojans faced the Littleton Tigers. Bromfield lost 1–0 to its third-place Mid-Wach League Division D competitor. The Trojans had previously lost 6–5 to Littleton, a team that ended the season with an overall record of 8–10.
Although the Trojans lost the two Littleton games by only one run, they had some big losses this season. On Friday, May 25, Ayer Shirley trampled Bromfield 6–1, at Ayer. The Ayer Shirley Panthers recorded their first two runs in the third inning, following with two more runs in the fifth and two in the sixth. The Trojans managed one run in the sixth inning, but 12 hits from the Panthers sealed the fate of the game. Ayer Shirley had an overall record of 9–8 as the season closed.
Then, Tuesday, May 29, the Trojans challenged the Panthers once again. Ayer Shirley again trampled Bromfield, this time 15–2.
“The two games against Ayer were a bit of a hurdle. … We played them back to back without practice in between,” Russell said. She explained that one of the team’s greatest setbacks was the two-week delay at the beginning of the season because of March snowstorms.
“It crammed all our games together,” she said. “We had little to no practice time.”
Still, the season was not a total loss. The team won its season opener against West Boylston, 8–2, on April 12, and beat Tahanto, 11–7, on May 21. On those occasions, Russell said, “The team hit really well, and the attitudes were … great..”
Russell closes out storied softball career
Kiley Russell pitched her final game for the Bromfield varsity softball team against St. Bernard’s Central Catholic High School, Thursday, May 31. Kiley began her varsity career in eighth grade and has been the primary softball pitcher for Bromfield for the past five years. She finished the season with 152 strikeouts, and amassed 717 total strikeouts in her career. Though Bromfield varsity softball does not have a formal record book, her achievement is unofficially thought to be a record for Bromfield. Russell will be playing softball for the Central Mass. Voodoo this summer, and she will study architecture at Syracuse University in the fall.
Kiley Russell winds up for a pitch. (Courtesy photo)
Julia Deng is a Bromfield junior.
