Usually, it takes awhile before freshmen make any sort of significant contributions to a team, whether it be in high school or college athletics. This is especially the case when there are six seniors and four juniors on the team, but that has been anything but the case for one Halifax native playing college softball locally.
On the Bridgewater State softball team, Halifax’ Shannon Grindell has not wasted any time adjusting to the rigors of college athletics. The freshman, who plays shortstop and third base, is emerging as one of her team’s top players.
In the first week of her collegiate career, she played in ten games and hit .324 with two doubles and 10 RBI. She even led the team with a .471 slugging percentage.
What has made her career in the making even more impressive is that she hit a homerun in her first career at-bat for the Bears against Mount Mary on March 5.
The Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference noticed her strong start to her career and named her their Softball Rookie of the Week on Monday, Mar. 13.
To start the week, Grindell had hits in seven of her 10 games and had a combined four hits in her past two games.
Grindell also had a memorable high school career at Silver Lake, from which she graduated in 2016. Some may remember she hit a walkoff homerun in the 11th inning of the Division 1 South sectional finals her junior year against King Philip in 2015.
The Bears were 4-6 on the season to start the season and spent the first week of the season playing doubleheaders in Naples and Fort Myers, Florida before they came back up north to start league play against UMass Boston on Thursday, Mar. 23. Thursday’s doubleheader against UMass Boston was also the Bears first home games.