Longtime Los Gatos High softball coach Randy Frey has told his players that they’re the team to beat in the Santa Clara Valley League’s De Anza Division this season.
“Now we need to go out and do it, so we’ll see what happens,” he said.
The Wildcats return eight seniors who saw considerable playing time off last year’s team that advanced to the Central Coast Section Division I playoff semifinals, where they lost a heartbreaker to eventual champion Watsonville on a walkoff grand slam.
However, Los Gatos plans on coming back stronger than ever, aided by the return of its top two pitchers, Anna Bean and Lynsey Chiala.
“They’re similar type pitchers in that they both throw hard and top out probably in the low 60s (mph),” Frey said. “I would call them power pitchers, and both like to attack hitters the same way which makes it easy for me to call pitches.”
Los Gatos played its season-opener on March 8, edging Leigh High, 4-3. Chiala is a four-year varsity player and has made a verbal commitment to play at Northwest Nazarene, a Division II program in Nampa, Idaho. When Chiala isn’t pitching, she’ll play second base and hit in the middle of the order.
Bean, a junior and one of just two non-senior starters on the team for the beginning of the season, hit .422 last year and is one of the best two-way players in the CCS. Addie Payne, a senior center fielder, smacked seven home runs last year and is a threat to hit for extra bases every time she’s at the plate.
The Wildcats have an outstanding leadoff hitter in Sara Sharma, a four-year starter. A second baseman and shortstop, Sharma hit a robust .373 last year. Senior third baseman Sree Sareday hit .333 a year ago and bats fifth or sixth in the order and possesses speed and power.
Avery Di Gangi, a senior first baseman who can play all over the field, finished with a .385 average in 2021 and is the team’s only left-handed slap hitter, making her a valuable asset. Di Gangi is projected to bat second behind Sharma.
“Avery doesn’t rattle the fences, but she manages to put the ball in play and gets on base a lot,” Frey said.
Sophomore Alexa Musser looks to be the team’s top newcomer. Frey raved about Musser “hitting the cover off the ball” in the team’s two scrimmages and practices and could settle in at the No. 3 spot in the lineup. Other impact players include senior left fielder Sarah Nedwich and junior Daisy Moore, who looks to wreak havoc on the basepaths.
“Daisy is probably the fastest girl on the team,” Frey said. “She’s a pretty strong defensive player, a good outfielder and she’ll definitely see a lot of action running the bases as a defensive replacement in the later innings.”
Los Gatos also returns senior shortstop Morgan Burt and catcher Sara Martin, key cogs in the team’s defense. Backup catcher Annika Norquist is the only freshman on the team, though that could change depending on if some freshmen from the junior varsity team show they need to be challenged at the varsity level.
Frey said this year’s freshman class is superb, which will help ease the sting of losing all the seniors off this year’s team.
“We’ve got a deep team of 16 girls on the roster, and 11 of them are seniors,” he said. “The first thing I think about is, ‘Oh my God, what is next year going to be like?’ But we have an incredible freshmen class of girls who would normally be playing varsity, but we don’t have room for them on the varsity this year.”
Despite having some outstanding players come through the program over the years, Los Gatos softball hasn’t experienced sustained success. Frey is looking to change that, and he’s got the Wildcats off to a good start. They won a league championship in 2019 and have made the playoffs every year since Frey took over for the 2013 season.
Sports editor Emanuel Lee can be reached at el**@we*****.com
