By JOSH BURRIS
The Norwell Lady Knights brought home some hardware last season, winning their first sectional championship since 2016.
They started the year off hot with six straight wins, but then near the end of the season lost eight times in a 10-game stretch. They bounced back just in time for sectional play though, raised the trophy, and finished with a 19-12 overall record.
“I really thought going into last year that we were going to win sectional,” Norwell coach Herb Bergman said. “We did hit a pretty bad low, and I was afraid that we wouldn’t be able to recover. But we did, and we ended the year playing pretty good ball.”
Most of Norwell’s championship team is back to play again this season. Senior shortstop Allyson Burtron, senior catcher Hannah Troyer, and senior pitcher and first baseman Brielle Nunley were all big contributors.
Junior Emma Bailey will be back at third base, and junior Delaney Connett will be back in the outfield. Sophomore Jordan Markley will be in the outfield once again, and sophomore Sami Lemler will continue to play second base and pitch.
Senior Kirtlynn Lemler and juniors Rachel Bauermeister and Tessa Garrett are girls that Bergman said could see more varsity action this season.
Top newcomers include freshmen Madyson Sonnigsen at pitcher and Ryland Graft and Alyssa Krinn as utility players.
Norwell has high expectations for the season.
“It’s our goal going in every year to win sectional, hit 20 homers, try to win 20 games. You just never want to get overconfident,” Bergman said. “We’ve got our goals, but we don’t think that just because we set goals that we are going to get them. We have to work hard to earn them. I know we have high expectations, and I have high expectations for this team. Now hopefully we can put it all together.”
While the Knights want to play deep into the postseason, they are not looking too far ahead at the moment. Bergman said it is a long season and they need to focus on the games that are in front of them first.
“Although sectional is a goal of ours, we don’t really think about sectional until sectional time. We take one game at a time,” he said. “It’s a long, hard season. It’s not long calendar-wise but it’s brutal playing three, four, or five games a week and not having a lot of rest and you are just constantly playing and playing and getting home late every night. It’s a pretty brutal season when it comes to that.”
Getting through the season will be no easy task either. The NE8 Conference alone will present many challenges for Norwell.
The Knights went 4-3 in conference play last season. Bergman said Columbia City, Huntington North, and Leo especially will be challenges for his team.
“Our conference is one of the hardest, I believe, in the state,” Bergman said. “We have some pretty incredible teams in our conference when it comes to softball. It’s pretty hard to pull that thing through.”
Norwell will also have a handful of challenging games outside the NE8. The Knights have matchups against some of the top teams in the Summit Athletic Conference like Homestead, Carroll, Bishop Dwenger, and Northrop.
Bergman said like the sectional, they are not looking ahead to these big matchups just yet and will hopefully be ready for the challenge.
“It’s a tough season,” Bergman reiterated.
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