'We are on fire': Hanover softball hitting its stride after sluggish start to season

HANOVER -- Not that preseason predictions are worth much, but no one would have looked at you funny if you had confidently declared, back in early April, that the Hanover High softball team would come flying out of the starting gate this spring.

After all, the Hawks had won 15 games in 2023, getting eliminated by eventual Division 3 state champ Middleboro in the playoffs. And they were bringing back four All-Scholastic hitters who had posted eye-popping numbers last season.

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Kaelyn Chase batted .622 with 23 RBIs and was the Patriot League Fisher Division MVP. McKenzie Foley hit .449 with 3 homers, 20 RBIs and 28 runs. Noey Giardina batted .493 with 5 homers and 40 RBIs. And Abby Hanna hit .537 with 4 homers and 34 RBIs.

With all that in their favor, surely the Hawks would be among the elite clubs on the South Shore.

Instead, Hanover found itself scuffling along with a 4-7 record as the calendar turned to May. It was ... a little surprising?

"Oh, yeah," said Chase, a senior center fielder. "In my four years here we had never been under .500. To have that happen so fast into the season made me a little nervous. But I knew the players we had on the team. I knew who we had."

Looks like Chase's faith has been rewarded.

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As the temperature has heated up, so have the Hanover bats. Heading into Saturday's regular-season finale (home vs. Marshfield on Senior Day), the Hawks have won four straight and seven of their last eight. The latest conquest was Wednesday's 13-1 rout of Quincy/North Quincy that was halted in the fifth inning by the mercy rule.

Hanover is 11-8 and climbing the charts in the Div. 3 power ranking. (Up to No. 24 at the start of the week.)

Now that's more like it.

"We are on fire," Chase said. "Our top six batters, I'm confident in all of us that we're going to hit the ball in a clutch situation whenever we need to."

Foley, who bats second, got the proverbial ball rolling against Quincy/North Quincy with a two-run homer over the center-field fence in the first inning that also plated Chase (leadoff single).

"I actually switched bats (right before coming up). Just felt like it," said Foley, a senior third baseman. "I'm probably going to be using that (heavier) one now. I knew when it hit the bat (that it was gone). Just one of those."

Hanover bunches its top four hitters at the top of the lineup with juniors Giardina and Hanna batting 3-4, respectively. Hanover coach Joe Messina raves about the quartet, saying, "There's no better (1-through-4) hitters (than ours)." Q/NQ might agree after seeing the foursome combine to reach base 14 times in 16 plate appearances in this one.

Chase was 3-for-4 with 3 runs. Foley was 3-for-3 with a hit by pitch, 2 RBIs and 3 runs. Giardina was 1-for-1 with two walks and hit-by-pitch, plus 2 RBIs and 3 runs. And Hanna was 3-for-4 with 5 RBIs and a run.

That sort of firepower has been there all season, but as Foley acknowledged, "Our bats weren't on at the beginning of the season. I think a lot of us, especially the upperclassmen, returned looking to just crank it over the fence every single time and instead we hit a lot of pop-ups. We tried new drills in practices and worked on hitting line drives. Coach helped us a lot. Halfway through the season we turned it around and our bats woke up."

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Hanover is looking more and more like a complete team these days, having scored recent high-profile wins over Pembroke (sophomore pitcher Talia Beer threw a 4-hit shutout last week) and Notre Dame Academy (by an 8-3 score on Monday). The Hawks had another huge day at the plate Tuesday, beating Scituate, 14-0, as Beer and fellow sophomore Paisley Stevens combined on a 2-hit shutout.

Another sophomore, Abby Minasi, has been a plus defender in left field, racing in to make a diving catch in the fifth inning vs. Q/NQ. "Speed demon," Foley said with a laugh.

Hanover's current hot streak started on May 11 when Messina earned his 200th career win in an 8-7 decision over East Bridgewater.

"That was definitely a big pick-me-up," Foley said. "I'm not sure that all the girls knew at the beginning of the game what that game meant. After that we really wanted to buckle down – for us but also for coach."

"That was nice," Messina, who's been in charge since 2010, said of the milestone. "I was glad it was with this group of girls. These seniors are special to me."

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Hanover High softball team heating up at right time