Jessica Lu, staff writer

Girls softball played Morningside Tuesday, April 9, pulling a 20-0 victory. The win gives  the girls a 1-0 record in league.

The team felt that the game opened nicely with center field Elena Rust scoring a home run in the first inning.

“That was the best start you could have [to a game],” Coach Len Mitchell said.

Rust went 4-4 in the game. In addition, shortstop Erica Davis was 4-4 and second baseman Alex Denton had a triple.

Morningside was unable to hit many pitches into the field, resulting in few defensive plays for Beverly.  First baseman Leah Shapiro felt that the quality of the pitching stood out, and overall the team performed well.

“Shyra Costas and Aleks Recupero did a superb job pitching,” Shapiro said. “We did the best we could with the given circumstances.”

Costas was the winning pitcher of the game, with a record of 2-2. Right fielder Shayna Stein commended the team’s flexibility during the course of the game.

“We were able to show that many of our players could still perform well in different positions,” Stein explained. “I think our team did well; everyone got to play, we held them from making any runs and we played consistently.”

Because of the large lead, the girls only played five innings instead of seven.

“We honestly do not have that happen very often.  This was a very big win for us,” manager Celine Hakimianpour said.

Currently, the girls are focused on their upcoming game Thursday, April 11, against Samo.

“Samo will definitely be a challenge for us,” Shapiro said. “Hopefully we will be able to compete with them.”

Stein voiced similar opinions, but feels winning is possible with some minor adjustments.

“It would be a big win for us,” she said. “I feel pretty confident with how we’ve been playing so far. We really need to focus on hitting to get on base and practice bunting.”

The game against Samo will be the second league game.  Samo also has a record of 1-0.

“Samo is the top team,” Mitchell said. “We are going from one extreme to the other. We definitely need to bring our A-game.”

Mitchell also expressed belief that softball is expected to be a top contender to make CIF.