The Cardinal Huskies softball team went 11-10 last season and went 4-6 in Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division play, winning its first conference game since 2019 and beating rival Berkshire for the first time since 2016.
The Cardinal Huskies softball team went 11-10 last season and went 4-6 in Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division play, winning its first conference game since 2019 and beating rival Berkshire for the first time since 2016.
That win over the Badgers came in coach Haley Adams’s senior season as a Cardinal athlete, and that last conference win came just one season before she took the reins.
Since then, Cardinal has turned the program around from winning 11 games in her first three seasons to an 11-win campaign in 2024.
“First and foremost, it starts with the number of girls we have in our program,” Adams said. “In my first couple of years we were barely holding together. We only had 11 girls, so we went from barely having a team to now being able to schedule JV games or go into some extra innings after a varsity game is over. That’s huge, especially for our feeder programs in the rec department. The girls are doing a great job of listening to what our coaching staff has to say, and they’re supportive of the girls and that’s what we like to see.”
A lot of this team’s core is underclassmen-oriented, with only three seniors on the roster, setting up for a bright future even once this season comes to an end.
“Something we don’t talk about enough is the IQ of our softball team,” Adams said. “The girls just know how to play the game, and we’re able to do situational things. Our experienced players are doing a good job of teaching the younger girls and taking them under their wing, making sure that they’re competitive. Something about our junior and sophomore classes is that they’re competitive, and how much they want to win. It’s something that we have now seen in volleyball and girls’ basketball.”
Two key players for the Huskies this season will be junior Maggie Grant, who will control the circle and pitch, while sophomore Emily Pleva will see work all over the field and continue to lead the youth movement for Cardinal.
Pleva hit .475 last season with 38 hits and 35 runs batted in and looks to reach a new ceiling this season, coming off a standard-setting season.
“I want to get my batting average up, and I want to come up big when I need to,” Pleva said. “We know we can win now, and we’re better this year than last. We need to grow off of last season and do the best we can.”
Maggie has worked most of her time in the circle over the last few seasons with a 10-18 record and a 4.77 earned run average in 151 ⅔ innings pitched with 210 strikeouts, but she’s also batting .410 with 47 hits, four homers and 48 RBI.
The junior has learned a lot in two seasons, gearing up for a breakout this year while also working to be one of the leaders on a team with just three seniors.
“We just have to help and explain things to them,” Grant said. “We have to make sure that they know everything we know.”
One of those seniors is Rylie Leichtman, who for just the second time in four years is healthy and ready to go for softball, having not played since her sophomore season, missing her freshman and junior years with injuries.
“With everything that I’ve gone through, I’m definitely understanding, and I want to push everyone to be better,” Leichtman said. “I know all these girls on this team have very high potential. From where we were my freshman year to seeing how this program has improved is amazing.”
In her one season, she posted a .389 average with 21 hits, 12 RBI with one triple and homerun.
The softball team, much like the baseball team, may benefit from the expansion of divisions in Ohio high school athletics, putting the Huskies in Div. VI.
This potentially opens a window for a deep run for Cardinal in the postseason.
“We haven’t won anything big in a long time,” Leichtman said. “I think we can do big things. We have to keep our minds right and stick with each other. We have to encourage one another and pick each other up, even after losses. We have to stick with it and work hard every single day.”
To round out the other bats that can make a difference this season will be sophomore Olivia Krebs, who hit .531 last season with 34 hits, while classmate Adelyn Grant drove in 26 runs along with three long-bombs and 12 doubles (both team highs).
Sticking with that class is Natalie Soltis who drove in 18 runs on just 22 hits last season.
Krebs, Pleva, the Grant sisters, Ivy Kaminski and Soltis are going to be the key difference-makers in the lineup.
“Krebs broke the career and single-season runs scored record as a freshman. As our leadoff hitter, she does a great job getting on base,” Coach Adams said. “Pleva, in 91 plate appearances, didn’t strike out once last season. Maggie and Adelyn follow each other. We mix in a lot of speed with Kaminski and Soltis who have speed, and some power, it makes for a dangerous lineup.”
While the true lineup and positions aren’t set for Opening Day, coach Adams sees Krebs patrol the hot corner, with Soltis and Pleva working up the middle, as first base is up for grabs.
The outfield trio comes down to sophomores Ivy Kaminsky and Nova Young, while freshmen Layla Marcum and Whitley are also vying for a spot, with Adelyn getting most of the work behind the dish.
Brooklyn Whitley, a freshman southpaw, along with Soltis and Izzy Ciminello, will all see time in the circle to relieve Maggie.
Now that there’s been some success for the Huskies, it’s time to raise the bench mark and set new standards.
“Picking up that first CVC win was huge for us, and now this season, we want to compete in the CVC title race, especially with this being our last season in it,” Adams said. “That starts our benchmark. We’ve got some tough competition. We did pickup that first postseason win last season over Leetonia, and we gave a good run against Jackson-Milton. I think our toughest task to get over that hump is to play the game we know how to play. I’m confident we can compete with any team, and we just have to be healthy for this season. We have 28 games this spring, and that’s the best practice for us. We have a lot of momentum from last season, and a lot of these girls played volleyball and basketball where they won a district title and ended as district runners-up, respectively. They’re super competitive, and it’s spreading to our younger girls too.
