The team is in transition and must focus on the fundamentals of the game.
Sisters Alix ’11 and Kerry ’13 might just break all of the Marlborough softball records by the time they both graduate.
With the talent that the sisters bring to the team, this goal doesn’t seem too impossible. As a freshman, Alix set the mark for lowest ERA by giving up only 1.85 earned runs a game, and as a batter, she broke the record for the highest batting average by hitting .571. This year, she hopes to break the record for stolen bases, which is 28, set by Kristy Ardell in 1992.
Kerry, in her first varsity season, is on track to break the season record for most home runs – 8, set by Caitlyn Ross in 2004 – and has also taken over as the team’s primary pitcher.
Up until this season, the Cook sisters had never played on the same softball team, but they both agreed that they push each other on the field.
“She’s the best player on the team besides myself,” Alix said about her sister.
“If one of us isn’t playing well, we have the other to pick up the slack,” Kerry said.
Head coach Ken Gal said that having siblings on the team is an interesting dynamic.
“They’ve transitioned successfully from sibling rivalry to teammates who really depend on each other,” Gal said. “I can really see their connectivity as sisters on the field.”
Gal said that the team is deeper in pitching and infield this year, but, overall, after graduating four seniors from last year’s team, this is still a transition year where he has had to emphasize remedial techniques with younger, less experienced players.
“We are stressing more fundamentals at this point than we did last year,” Gal said.
The team is currently 5-5 overall and is just heading into their Sunshine League schedule. Their success in the league, in which their record is currently 0-1, will determine whether the team meets Gal’s goal of making it to California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section playoffs and go further.
The highlight of the year so far was a 5-4 win over Harvard-Westlake March 8, when Kerry hit a walk-off home run over the center field fence with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to end the game. She also pitched all seven innings while striking out 11, and giving up only five hits.
Tuesday’s game, a 10-0 loss to South Torrance, may have been a low point, but the team rebounded with a 12-1 win over Montclair on Wednesday.
Catcher Taylor’12 said she hopes to beat arch-rival Marymount when they face off April 20.