Hamilton and Utica College softball

Softball players cope with season cancellation

Senior spring athletes are now having to cope with the harsh reality that they won't be able to end their college career playing the sport that they love because of the coronavirus pandemic.

-- two of our local teams, utica college and hamilton college softball, were set to begin their season the same week that things took a turn.

-- ((take vo)) both teams took to twitter, facebook and other social media outlets to try to keep their seasons alive, at home.

Hamilton who was coming off of their best season for this senior class last year, with a 28 and 11 record overall , was looking forward to the season start.

Just days away from flying to florida to kick off, things came to an abrupt halt.

I spoke with hamilton head coach stephanie hartquist about the whirlwind of events, and how the team celebrated their 3 seniors - caitlin berreitter, emily fraser and kendall searcy - right before the team and college students all had to move back home.

She applauds her seniors maturity and support of each other.

((take sot)) stephanie hartquist: they were heartbroken it's something that's affecting everybody now and at that time we weren't sure at what scale this all was but being in it and just from the athlete perspective it's devastating you look forward to your senior year and he said these goals for the season and for yourself you want to you're looking forward to commencement you're looking forward to seeing your day with your teammates and it just came to a very abrupt halt so it was really hard for them but again they're also our captains so they sort of took that moment we had a nice meeting in my office and we let real feelings come out and they sort of stepped up and said all right you know this is it we're going to make the most of it senior day and it's self was it was awesome it's all good everybody was just really taking it in we learned a lesson to kind of not take any minute on the field or with her teammates for granite and they seem to have a really good time that friday and everyone was kind of enjoying the so they sort of took that moment we had a nice meeting in my office and we let real feelings come out and i sort of stepped up and said all right you know this is it we're going to make the most of it senior day and it's self was it was awesome i feel good everybody was just really taking it in we learned a lesson to kind of not take any minute on the field or with her teammates for granite and they seem to have a really good time that friday and everyone was kind of enjoying the last to go with each other utica college softball players were counting down the days on social media until spring break play just before the coronavirus outbreak.

< ((take vo)) their 5 seniors: alyssa samborin, jacqueline aronin, rachel caswell, madison akots and jamie miller are also walking away from a college career that seems unfinished.

-- head coach pat mineo says that school officials were meeting everyday of the week to figure out if the team should head to florida or not for the season kick-off until friday, march 13 when the final decision was made not to go just like hamilton.

-- it was the right decision.

At that point the season wasn't even canceled yet.

The two teams would try to play each other instead, but days later, they'd learn their fate.

-- coach talks about the moment that his players heard the news and his hopeful mindset.

((take sot)) pat mineo: it wasn't as much of a shock for me when it came across the time as it was for them and i think they two in the back of their minds thought that there's a possibility that this thing is spreading quicker than we thought and we're not going to be able to go.

Why mr. bunting told the baseball team and the softball team i mean there are tears on both sides not only just the girls and they were kind of heartbroken hopefully in the summertime they're going to be able to play some summer ball and keep themselves in shape so hopefully we come back in the fall we can start our nontraditional season and get back into playing softball and hopefully put all of this behind us.

((take vo)) the n-c-a-a granted seniors another year of eligibility if they choose to use it, so you can potentially see some of these women out on the