Softball charging toward the season ahead

By Bobby Colla

Sports Editor

The Hudson Valley softball season is set to get underway in about a week and the team seems to be well prepared.

Head coach Christopher Mazzeo said he likes where the team is at this moment in time. “I think we did well recruiting, and we had a very successful fall ball season,” he said.

The team started in September and Mazzeo said that gave the players some time to acclimate to the school before really getting started.

During their fall ball season, they beat two NCAA Division III teams. Mazzeo said he was happy with how they played and a record of 3-1 showed some promise for the coming season.

“After fall ball was over, most of our work after then was in the cage, until January when we went into the gym,” said Mazzeo. “Last year we were third in the nation in hitting, and we wanted to work more on it. This year, one of our goals is to be number one in the nation in hitting,” he added

“We have been very focused on cage work, conditioning, and agility,” he said. According to Mazzeo, the team has more depth and more talent than previous years because of recruiting.

“Depth is going to be huge. We were able to recruit, a lot more players from the area,” he said. Mazzeo said he put a lot more emphasis on recruiting this year, to improve on what was a pretty successful regular season last year. The team went 11-6 and mercied several teams last year.

“We have two players at each position at each position, where in the past we could get a nine player roster in of pure softball players. Top to bottom we have 16 softball players on the team,” Mazzeo said

“Recruiting has even improved into next year,” said Mazzeo. “We are getting four new pitchers in next year,” he added.

“I think people in New York now see that Hudson Valley is going to be a place to play softball,” he said. The team is practicing in the indoor batting cages at the baseball complex as well as in the gym, preparing for the season ahead.

Softball’s first game is on Tuesday, Mar. 31 at 3pm on their home field against Mohawk Valley.