The softball team finished their season this past week with a loss at the district tournament.

Despite the loss, senior softball manager Callie Struby was happy with how the team performed this season.

“Softball is always a struggle because they do not get to practice that much because of weather and the availability of Coach Williamson,” Struby said. “They are not around each other that much so the team can be dysfunctional at times, but their performances are better than previous seasons.”

Senior Maegan Smith and juniors Jessica Monday and Jordan Farris all joined this year, never playing for Harding in their previous years.

Returning players have also done well so far this year according to Struby. Senior Kamri Johnson is the pitcher and improved every single game.

“In the beginning I was in a more supportive role because I was not very good, and then I grew into a leadership role,” Johnson said.

Other standouts included senior Demetri Samuel as the team captain and embraced the role. Junior M.J. Holleman played as catcher and has potential to continue to improve to make great plays during games. Junior Payton Langley has been a standout player so far this season due to the incredible plays that she has made during games and practices.

“The team always plays well when the play runs through Payton because they know that she will pass it right and they don’t doubt her, so the team gains confidence,” Struby said.

The team played against Bishop McGuinness on April 20 and won. Langley had three home runs and helped with some major plays on the defense to get the opponents out. Langley was also pleased with how the team performed together.

“I think that we are doing better than expected because we lost a lot of our normal starters so we did not think that we would do as well,” Langley said.

Langley knows that the team can continue to improve next season, and she thinks that they can do that through more communication and working together with passing.

“They need to work on the team factor and just to spend more time together as a team,” Struby said, agreeing with Langley.

The team went 3-3 for the 2015 spring season.

Johnson was pleased with how the team ended their season.

“I feel that we did really well considering the fact that we got a team together one day before our season started and we held it together really well with only 12 players when we needed at least 10 to play and very few practices,” Johnson said. “We handled everything well regardless of the new players and injuries.”

Athletic Director Mylo Miller was pleased with how the team performed this season.

“The softball girls were so very competitive this year and always gave 100% on every play,” Miller said.