The CT Softball Blog

Travel softball is a huge commitment.

Athletes, year-round, balance softball with school sports, academic class loads, extra-curricular activities, and family responsibilities. It’s difficult, yet many girls still choose to join a travel team and rise to the challenge of balancing it all. 

Even though this is a year-round commitment, there is something different about the summer season. It could just be that school is out, but I think the summer season is unique because for girls like me who get to travel mostly across New England. The summer bonds built during these away tournaments and game breaks and the fun of facing old teammates as our opponents make it special. Those bonds can last over time even if people end up playing for a different team—it builds a sisterhood that endures. 

I had the opportunity to interview eight different girls, who have all been my teammates at some point in my softball journey, about their 2026 summer experience.

It was interesting to see what we all still have in common and also where our experiences and long-term goals differ.

SCENES OF SUMMER (A Travel Softball Slideshow)

I began the interviews by asking each girl why they play travel softball. The girls’ responses ranged from hoping to gain new friendships, to improving their skills, to getting recruited.

Many travel coaches think that every girl who plays travel softball wants to play in college, but that is not the case for everyone.

Charlotte Lombardi, who plays for Monarchs 14U–Roy, shared, “I don’t want to play in college, but I want to grow my skills for high school and contribute to the high school team.”

For Gabby Otto, a member of the Run and Gun Lady Nightmares 16U-Revere, friendship is what matters most: “I think the most important thing to get out of travel for me is the community and the friendships that it gives me. I feel like I’ve built so many connections that are long lasting.”

Regardless of our reasons for playing, it’s a love of the game that keeps us coming back year after year.

The summer season is intense. We practice with our teams multiple times a week. Girls like me not only go to team practices but also supplement those sessions with hitting and/or pitching coaches, strength training, and maybe for some, summer practices for a high school fall sport. Some of us even spend almost every weekend traveling out of state to compete.

Hope Giammatteo, a member of CT Lightning Gold-Wright, who will be attending and playing softball at Skidmore College in the fall, said “We’ll be gone from Wednesday to Sunday every week and then leave again on Wednesday the next week.”

Giammatteo shared that this was one of the biggest challenges for her, especially while preparing to leave for college this fall. 

The summer season brings challenges not just for Giammatteo, but for all of us.

For most of the girls I interviewed, the biggest challenge was the mental aspect of the game.

This was especially true for Victoria Budarz, a member of CT Charmers 16u Gold-Senerchia, who has, “Always had a lack of confidence, so it’s really hard for me to regain that, especially hitting. I tried to read some books, but at the end of the day, it’s just like my hitting coach says, ‘Trust is a must or your game is a bust.’ I’m really trying to think of that now as the season is coming to an end just to stay loose and have fun.”

Other girls felt that making practices after work, losing to teams they should’ve beaten, playing harder teams, and struggling through slumps challenged them most.

For me, the hardest part of my season was going from not pitching during my high school season to finding myself mostly in the circle during the summer. Building my endurance and throwing strikes for so many games was tough.

Despite these challenges, the summer season brings us all memories that will last a lifetime, as well as moments to be proud of.

From hanging out with our teammates to winning championships to personal successes, we are all finishing the summer season with something to remember.

For Budarz it was two saves in one day.

For Jazz Delprincipe, a member of the CT Rapids organization, it was a grand slam.

For Amelia Deschaine, a pitcher for CT Mirage, it was “throwing a shutout game on elimination day.”

For Giammatteo, it was hitting a walk-off grand slam. 

For Jess Mizia, a former player of the Lady Dukes CT Showcase team who recently moved to South Carolina, it was being with her teammates: “We had such a good atmosphere on our travel team. I really think everyone was included, there were no cliques, and it just made it so much more fun to play with everyone.”

For Anna Meisenkothen, a CT Tides veteran, it was the team bonding. Meisenkothen shared that at a tournament in New Hampshire, “We were walking around trying to find fireworks, but we were walking for 30 minutes and we couldn’t find any. We were all just having a good time walking around with each other and laughing.”

For me, it was coming through for my new team, not once but twice with two outs, hitting singles with bases loaded in multiple at bats during my first game with them.

In addition, the summer season brings important learning experiences that all of us can use, both on and off the field, for the rest of the year.  

Delprincipe reflected, “that I like to lunge a lot and that it’s better for me to be calm, and that I’m not really the best at inside pitches and I need to work on that.”  

Deschaine learned that, “I need more patience.”

Meisenkothen shared that, “I learned more of how to be a leader.”

What I learned most through these interviews, is that we are all united by one thing: a love for the game. That love for the game transcends far and wide.

It not only gets us through intense summer seasons, the challenges of slumps, and balancing our responsibilities, but it also helps us get better, whether that’s for ourselves in the hope of getting recruited, or for our high school teams, or just because we want to be the best softball players we can be.

I would like to thank these eight girls for being the “Voices of Summer Softball.” 

Please stay tuned for Part II later this week, where the Voices of Summer Softball will share advice for younger players about travel softball. 

Love Stories Like This?

Get Connecticut’s best softball features, breaking news, recruiting updates and exclusive interviews delivered to your inbox every Friday morning. Subscribe to the CT Softball Blog Weekly.