Alyssa Newman tosses the ball to second base and her sister Brittney Newman during Friday's practice at San Benito High School.

Strong traditions can do one of two things to a young squad, softball manager Scott Smith said. It can overwhelm the youth, as the team tries to grow. Or the young players can use the tradition of success as motivation for their own success.

After six-straight Central Coast Section championships, the San Benito softball team is oozing with success and tradition. But this year might be the biggest challenge for manager Smith in continuing that long-term success.

The Balers will start four freshmen, as they try to replace the loss of all-leaguers Jessica Vest, Paige Miguel, Brittany Hoff, Sam Puentas and Jessica Steigelman.

In one year, the Balers went from a team full of talent and experience, to a team with untapped talent. That doesn’t mean, though, the Balers don’t expect to finish where they have for the past half-decade.

“If we can grow up fairly quickly and get our young kids to grow up we’ll be competitive this year,” Smith said. “Our expectations are always high at the start of the year. And the reason for that is that we feel like we work harder than anybody else. We are out here six days a week, after school until it’s dark every night. And the kids never complain about it. We feel – even if we are young – by mid-season we will be caught up.”

In the meantime, Smith will rely on the small group of returnees, which includes ace Megan Sabattini, Brittany Sparrer and Brittany Newman.

“Megan Sabattini is going to be the key to the whole thing,” Smith said. “She is a power pitcher. If she is on her game, we will be competitive.”

Unlike last year, when the team relied on a superb defense, the team will display more power on the mound and at the plate, Smith said.

“This year we have a strikeout pitcher,” he said. “Our secondary strength is going to be our hitting. We are going to have a little bit more power this year. Our Achilles heel could be our defense. And we are spending a lot of time in the preseason preparing for that.”

Regardless, the team is ready for the challenge of grabbing their seventh-straight CCS title. To do that, the older players will continue to help the newcomers improve.

“The challenges are, they are so young,” Cassidy Heen said. “They have to learn so much more. We have to keep teaching them and teaching them. They’ll make the adjustments.”

Eventually, the young players will have to overcome fear or the “deer in the headlights” look, Smith said.

“They are going to be nervous, and this year will be about how to grow out of that,” he said.

An influx of youth, though, is not a rare thing for Smith and the softball team. For Sparrer, the year mirrors her freshman year, she said.

“When I was a freshman, we had a big freshman class that was on varsity,” she said. “It’s the same thing again this year. There is the new “fab four,” and they are doing good. We have three of them in the infield right now. They don’t act like freshmen – they act like older girls.”

Because of that maturity – and talent – Sparrer expects her third trip to the CCS title game, she said.

“It’s cool going into a game, knowing you’re the team that everyone wants to beat,” she said. “You have to keep working hard. We have to know to work hard. We never lose a game. We might not win a game but we never lose.”

That’s because Smith continues to push the girls in every game, Newman said.

“He pushes us a lot,” Newman said. “He is never satisfied. He knows our weaknesses. He keeps us honest. He is never satisfied so he keeps us going. We just need to work hard and bond together and carry it out to the field and hopefully that works.”

But the biggest thing for the team is having pride in the players that came before and their success, Smith said.

“They need to take pride in that teams want to beat you so bad,” he said. “For some teams, their season is made by beating us. You have to take pride in taking a role on this team.”

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A staff member wrote, edited or posted this article, which may include information provided by one or more third parties.

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