ELLICOTTVILLE — A sectional final and semifinal appearance in back-to-back years and seven starters returning have the Ellicottville softball team confident and excited in the early days of the new campaign.
In his 17th year at the helm of the Eagles, coach Matt Finn has also started to get his hopes up for what his team can accomplish this year after seeing some bright spots in the first few games of the season.
Now, instead of having to spend the beginning of the year re-teaching the basics, he can focus more on big-picture things and mold the team in a way where they can achieve the long-term goals they’ve set for themselves.
“At one point I was talking about our bunt coverage and sure enough the girls squared up the bunts and every girl went to the exact spot that they were supposed to go,” Finn said. “For it being early April, that is magical. They knew their jobs, they knew their roles and went right to it. It was fantastic … (Now), you can do more fine-tuning stuff instead of constantly going over (the basics).”
The end goal is simple for Finn: be the last team standing. Two years in a row, Ellicottville has been on the fringe of Section 6 glory and in each of those years, it has been Westfield that has ended the Eagles’ postseason run.
While those individual moments may have hurt, the confidence that has been instilled within his players from being able to make such deep runs in the postseason, cannot be understated according to Finn.
“I think coming into this year we know we can do this, we know (a section title) is attainable,” Finn said. “This is not a dream. For many years, we, I won’t say struggled so much as just didn’t believe that we could get there. Now, (we know) we can get there. It’s not quite an expectation, but it’s becoming the goal every year that we get to that title game.”
Members of the Ellicottville softball team gather in the circle in one of their early-season games in Myrtle Beach.
ASPIRATIONS OF a yearly title charge have become the norm for the Eagles with returning players such as Ande Northrup, Courtney Marsh, Jaida Mendell and Emmylu Carls leading the lines. Each of them has been hailed by Finn as crucial in his team’s success. The kicker: only two of them are seniors. Of the Eagles’ top six batters last season (minimum eight at-bats) Northrup, Marsh, Mendell and Carls occupied four of those spots.
On 53 at-bats, Mendell recorded 25 hits, 20 runs and struck out just four times. Northrup, then a freshman, had 24 hits, 24 runs and only three strikeouts on 54 at-bats. Marsh finished last season with 19 hits, 20 runs and two strikeouts on 46 at-bats and Carls with 11 hits, 11 runs and two strikeouts on 31 at-bats.
Even with the majority of his lineup at a younger standing, Finn said that there has been ample time to build chemistry within the ranks since players have been getting involved so early.
From the team’s first early-season trip to Myrtle Beach since 2009 to dugout campouts, the bond between players is not something that has stressed Finn. This has led to him seeing an increased amount of trust on the field, something that will make his, and everyone else’s job, a whole lot easier.
“They trust each other, they know each other, they know that someone’s gonna be there and so that’s huge,” Finn said. “That makes their job easier knowing that someone else is doing their job … it just helps them excel individually.”
Ellicottville’s Bri Aronson steps up to the plate for the Eagles in Myrtle Beach.
INDIVIDUALLY, Finn believes the way his team swings the bats this season will be its biggest strength. From what he’s seen of his team’s new leaders throughout their careers and into the early part of this year, as long as his batters have the confidence to go up to the plate and do what he knows they are capable of doing, they will be just fine.
“When they’re playing confidently, when they’re playing with pride, yeah, they can put some good numbers up and I think they can really play some ball,” Finn said.
With confidence comes leadership and while the likes of Northrup, Mendell, Carls and Marsh are all looking to build on the success they had last year leading the team statistically, Ellicottville is taking more of a “lead by committee” approach.
“The girls are saying it, the coaches aren’t even saying it,” Finn said. “They’re saying, ‘This is what we are thinking, so follow along.’”
With just one more non-league game before CCAA East II play begins, the experience and leadership within Ellicottville’s squad will be put to the test. Having finished second in the league the last two seasons, the journey for Finn and his girls to be the “last team around playing ball” is underway.
