LEVEL BEST: Princeton Day School softball player Adriana Salzano displays her level swing in a game this spring. Junior star Salzano batted .703 with 15 runs and 15 RBIs to help PDS go 3-8 this spring. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

While the Princeton Day School softball team went through an up-and-down spring as it dealt with numbers issues, it ended the spring on a high note.

Trailing Trenton High 15-8 heading into the bottom of the last inning of its final game, PDS exploded for eight runs in the frame to pull out a dramatic 16-15 victory.

“That was good because, we were losing for the first five innings, we came back in the seventh,” said PDS head coach Angela Adams, who guided the Panthers to a 3-8 record. “It was an exciting way to end the season for sure.”

Unfortunately for Adams, much of the excitement this season dealt with her efforts to put a team on the field as PDS started the season with just nine players and then lost a player due to injury. The team was able to recruit three members of the school’s figure skating team in order to have enough players to compete.

“It was definitely a challenge because the figure skaters had to do both at the same time; figure skating didn’t end until mid-May so they had to go to practice in figure skating and they would come to practice and games whenever they could,” said Adams of the trio of Jessica Salguero, Skye Schlenker, and Aerin Bruno. “They would be jumping into games with very little practice at all. They managed. Between the three of them, they helped keep us going. With the little practice that they had, they helped with the success that we had.”

Junior stalwarts Adriana Salzano and Colleen Mayer deserve much of the credit for keeping things going this spring for the Panthers. Salzano batted .703 with 15 runs and 15 RBIs while Mayer hit .444 with 13 runs and five RBIs. In addition, they shared the pitching duties.

“That kid is amazing, softball is not even her No. 1 sport; she is going to play D-I soccer at Monmouth,” said Adams of Salzano. “She is probably one of the best athletes I have ever seen play the game. She is dedicated. Colleen’s sport is softball, she wants to play softball in college. They have been captains since their freshman year and they were captains again this year along with our lone senior Nora Appleby.”

Appleby, for her part, batted .265 in her final campaign with nine runs and nine RBIs while handling the catching duties.

“Nora caught pretty much every single game, her hitting was around .300,” said Adams. “The one thing I mentioned at Senior Day about her was that she didn’t have a freshman season in 2020 because of COVID and she ended up catching every single year she was with me. She continues to grow in that position. It was something that she did really well.”

Adams is confident that junior Brigid Milligan can grow into a star for PDS.

“Brigid will have to fill in Nora’s shoes next year,” said Adams of Adams who hit .286 this spring. “She mainly played third, she was also back-up catcher if I needed her. She did have a pretty strong bat this year. It took her a little while to get going. She is going to have to step up for me next year and catch.”

In the view of Adams, the team’s strong unity helped it stick together as it dealt with the challenges it faced this spring.

“The core group of girls this year got along really well, the chemistry was great,” said Adams. “This was a really cohesive team. Sometimes they have their own groups but this year we didn’t seem to have any of that, like a group here or a group there. It was good in that aspect. We were able to do things outside of softball and become close.”

Looking ahead to next spring, Adams is hoping that chemistry will carry over with her core group.

“We have a good foundation with Colleen and Dre being seniors,” said Adams. “Brigid is going to be senior next year. Sara Appleby is going to be a senior next year. I am just losing Nora. The new players we had this year will hopefully come back and play again next year. I am hoping that I gain at least a few more with any freshmen coming in.”