By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
A year ago, Kate O’Connell admittedly had trouble with one of the basic principles of hitting., After playing as a sophomore for the Hun School softball team, O’Connell struggled at the plate as a junior. Her struggles reached the point where she was replaced in the lineup as a hitter., “I’m definitely hitting a lot more than I did last year,” said O’Connell, now a senior captain for the Raiders. “It’s really interesting to see the progress that I’ve made in the last few years of just going from not hitting at all, to last season getting benched, to now I’m hitting well. I really had a tough time last year. I wasn’t hitting at all. I just couldn’t see anything., “I got contacts this year and that made all the difference. I can actually see the ball now. I had one or two hits last season, but this season I’ve been hitting every game. It feels so much better.”, O’Connell had a pair of hits on Tuesday to help Hun to a 9-1 win over Lawrenceville as the Raiders improved to 2-1 on the season. Julie Fassl also had two hits for Hun, while Julia Revock drove in a pair of runs to back the pitching of Alana Pearson, who allowed just two hits and struck out seven to earn the win., “It’s always nice to get a win against Lawrenceville,” said O’Connell, who has six hits in nine at bats so far this season. “It’s a tough season because I know its my last and I want to give it everything I have., I, “t’s really gratifying to know I’m at this level now. I’ve watched seniors before me do things, it’s really nice to finally be in that position.”, Hun coach Kathy Quirk has seen O’Connell’s improvement at the plate after struggling last year. While she never lost her spot in the outfield, O’Connell did lose appearances at the plate. But with her quick start this year, that isn’t likely to happen again., “She played last year, she just didn’t hit,” said Quirk, whose team was scheduled to play at Rutgers Prep on Thursday. “We’ve been working with her. We told her to just go up there and slap the ball and have fun. That’s the key for her. She just needs to have fun. She’s come a long way. Last year she never batted. Today the two hits she had, she hit the ball hard. She’s having fun, she’s enjoying it, she’s a captain and she’s just really taken over. I’m really happy for her.”, With the offense coming together it looks like the Raiders could be in for a big season. O’Connell is happy to be a part of it as a senior., “We have a relatively young team,” the Princeton resident said. “We graduated a lot of seniors last year and we brought in a bunch of new girls. We work really well together, we’ve connected really well. We’ve got a lot of new players., “We lost states last year and that’s our biggest goal at this point, to just go for states and see what happens.”, Overall, it was a good win for a Hun team that was clicking on all cylinders., “I thought our hitting was great today,” Quirk said. “Their pitcher did a nice job, we were just able to capitalize. We practice hitting every day. We work on it. And Alana did a nice job today.”
