MILFORD—For a stretch early in the season, the schedule didn’t just get busy. It got crowded in a hurry.
Lauralton Hall found itself playing five games in seven days, a stretch that included three road games in a row, as well. And, it all came on the heels of an 0-2 start, at a time when most teams are still trying to settle in.
For a roster that features nine freshmen—seven of whom are in the starting lineup at any given time—it could have gone a lot of different ways.
Instead, the Crusaders went 4-1.
Let’s go back to the beginning, shall we?
Because this isn’t just a young team. It’s one of the youngest around.
Lauralton has one senior, one junior who is currently sidelined with an injury, four sophomores and nine freshmen. That’s not a developmental pipeline. That’s the present.
“You expect those bumps in the road,” head coach Kayla Gold said. “They’re freshmen. They’re going to make some of those mistakes.”
The early results reflected that. The Crusaders opened the season with two losses. It’s third defeat of the season came against top-ranked and undefeated Cheshire, and that has a way of humbling just about anyone.
But what followed said more about this group than the start ever could.
“They came back firing after that game,” Gold said.
There’s a version of this story where a team this young struggles to keep up once the schedule tightens. Where the mistakes linger a little longer, the adjustments take a little more time, and the losses start to stack.
That’s usually how this goes.
But Lauralton Hall has shown an ability to correct things quickly, which is not something you always see from a group this inexperienced.
“If we see something in a game and we work on it, they fix it within the next couple of games,” Gold said. “It’s been nice to see how quickly they catch on.”
That showed up late in the week, particularly on the defensive side, where cleaner play and quicker decisions started to turn into more outs.
It also showed up in how comfortable players looked moving between roles.
In the circle, freshmen Lily Kalagher, Paige Perry and Addie Bertholf have shared the workload, while catcher Grace Dubin—another freshman—has provided stability behind the plate, helped in part by existing chemistry with those pitchers from travel ball.
That familiarity matters, especially when everything else is moving quickly.
Freshman Maja Brown has been a key piece, handling both infield and outfield responsibilities while also setting the tone at the top of the lineup as the team’s leadoff hitter.
And then there’s the lone senior, Lexi Grund.
Last year, she was part of a larger group of upperclassmen. This year, she’s leading a roster filled with players just getting their first taste of varsity softball.
“She’s done a great job keeping them focused,” Gold said. “If we need help with something, we can go to her and she’ll work with them.”
The junior, Riley Hite, has also taken on a leadership role from the bench while dealing with injury, giving the Crusaders another voice in the dugout even if she’s not on the field.
It’s a different kind of leadership structure, but one that seems to be working.
The week itself offered a test beyond just the results.
A 14-7 win over Sacred Heart Academy on Saturday, April 11, was Lauralton’s first win of the season.
The 13-0 defeat to Cheshire followed, as did three road games against Branford, Joel Barlow and Hamden.
The results, however, were three straight wins—9-3, 17-4 and 8-1, respectively.
“As a staff, we looked at that stretch and thought we could make a statement,” Gold said. “The biggest thing was making sure the girls stayed healthy and were ready to go.”
For players who haven’t experienced that kind of schedule before, it required a different level of communication and awareness, both from the coaches and the athletes.
By the end of it, Lauralton had not only managed the workload, it had built something from it.
Four wins in five games.
A team that looked more comfortable than it had just days earlier.
Sophomores for the Crusaders include: starting first baseman Luci Ondis, Kaley Hobbs, Alexa Bitzer and Erynn Willey. The rest of the freshmen include: Izzy Glassman, Ellie Flynn, Skylar Crozier, and McKenna Chiota.
Now the schedule eases a bit, with fewer games and more time to practice.
That could be just as important given how young the Crusaders remain, even just seven games into the new season.
“It’ll be nice to get back to working on fundamentals,” Gold said.
For a team this young, those practice days matter. They provide a chance to reinforce what’s been learned and to keep building on it without the pressure of immediate results.
Lauralton Hall is 4-3, and looking forward to better days.
It’s a modest record on paper, especially this early in the season.
But the way it got there—through a demanding stretch, with a lineup built largely on freshmen—offers a clearer picture of what this group might become.
There’s still a lot to learn and a lot of games to play.
But for a team that could have been overwhelmed, the last week suggested something else entirely.
They’re figuring it out.
And they’re doing it faster than most would expect.
Leave a Reply