Amos Leads Softball to Top Seed in States

Softball

Jacob Martino
P.J. Montezuma

A near perfect season has come to an end for the Malden High School softball team as they finished with a final record of 17-1. The team’s only loss came against Lynn Classical on Apr. 29, 2012, allowing them to earn the fourth-best ranking in Massachusetts and the top seed in the state tournament.

They clinched a spot in the state tournament with the Greater Boston League (GBL) championship for the fifth year in a row. The team’s first tournament game comes on Sat, June 2 at Callahan Park.

The team will be losing four seniors when the season comes to an end. The three senior captains and GBL All-Stars, Kiara Amos, Rebecca Krigman, and Emily Hoffman as well as Blue and Gold member Brittany McFeeley. Head Coach John Furlong said, “Next year, we return six starters and a very talented bench to go along with a great freshman class, so the future looks good.” There has been success throughout the whole program with no signs of stopping, including an undefeated season by the freshman team.

Plenty of the team’s success was from star pitcher Kiara Amos, who pitched all 18 games and threw a no-hitter in the team’s “slaughter rule” victory against Somerville earlier in the year. Going into the tournament with all this hype would make most high school athletes feel a great deal of pressure, but Amos is confident that her team can get through it. She commented, “sometimes I feel pressure to be perfect and to get out of tough innings…going to the state tournament, I feel it will be a lot more pressure, but I think that my team and I can get through it.”

With Hoffman and Amos’ chemistry together, the team should have nothing but confidence as their first playoff game approaches. “I feel like we have the potential to win the whole thing,” Amos commented.

With all the success the team has had, Furlong is keeping the girls level-headed and is not letting them get over-confident about being the top seed. Amos stated, “he tells us that going [into the playoffs] everyone is undefeated and there are no second chances.”

What Furlong tells the girls is very true because in the tournament if a team loses one game, they are eliminated. Aside from Amos, Hoffman, and Krigman leading the team into the tournament, Amos gave a lot of credit to the underclassmen, who play key roles to the team.

Junior Bridget Furlong has hit a home run as well as another walk-off hit this season. Amos commented, “I think Bridget’s hitting has improved a lot this season, she helped us win a couple of games at the plate,” Amos stated. “[Junior] Erika Hanson has also helped out a lot in the field and at the plate this season.