By Christopher Tremblay, Staff Sports Writer

Playing softball in the Grafton recreational league growing up, Ashley Donaldson found that she really enjoyed the sport and by the age of ten she wanted more. Joining a summer league, she was now not only able to play softball more often but was able to improve her skills along the way in hopes of someday making the high school team.

Donaldson got involved with the club team Evolution out of West Boylston and would practice her craft with them during the fall and winter seasons and participate in tournaments during the summer – making her a year-round softball player. In the spring, she would eventually play for the Gators.

She found that she truly enjoyed the sport and it didn’t matter where she played as long as she was on the field in some capacity. However, when one of her coaches decided to try her out in the outfield, Donaldson soon found a position that she wanted to play in every game.

“One of my summer coaches decided to stick me in centerfield as he thought that I could become a good outfielder,” she said.” “At first I was very shocked with the move as it was a position that I hadn’t played in a long time, but I soon realized that I was a much better player in the outfield. Being fast, I loved being able to run after fly balls and track them down.”

As high school softball tryouts approached during her first year at Grafton, the freshman was a little nervous and really didn’t expect to make the varsity team with all the talent it had. Eventually the team was announced and Donaldson found her name associated with the varsity squad; shocked but totally thrilled that she earned a spot on the top team.

Although she was on the varsity roster, she found herself sitting on the bench for the majority of the first half of the season watching and learning from all the older girls on the team.

“I was ok with it as I got to watch some good softball, while learning,” Donaldson said. “The girls supported all the younger athletes and gave us the encouragement that we needed to be successful in the future.”

About half way into the season Donaldson had her named penciled in as the starting second baseman, a position she hadn’t encountered in some time.

“I had to reacclimate myself to playing the position, but I was comfortable with it once again although it did take me a couple of games,” she said. “The older girls continued to support my play and told me not to let it bother me if I made a mistake; forget it and move on, don’t let it get in my head.”

Donaldson took the advice to heart and had herself a decent sec ond half of the season as Grafton earned themselves a number 12 seed in the Division 2 State Softball Tournament and made it to the Round 8 before losing to Westfield, the eventual state champion. 

Upon entering her second season with the varsity team Donaldson was once again expecting to play second base, but when the Gator coach found out that she could play the outfield all bets were off. The then-sophomore would open the season in left field where she would play a couple of games before moving to center, where she would be a fixture for the remainder of the season. 

“Being in the outfield that year, I got my confidence back,: she said. “That in turn helped me with my summer ball.”

As a freshman, when she did play someone would hit for her when it came to her time to bat, but during her sophomore campaign she was allowed to step into the box and take her hacks. Donaldson said, she considered herself a singles type of hitter, where she could get on base and then attempt to steal bases.

Once again, much like her sophomore season, Donaldson was hoping that she’d once again be patrolling the outfield for Grafton, but it wasn’t to be the case. The junior was going to be moved again, she would find herself in the infield, but not at second base, instead she would be playing shortstop now. In addition to shortstop, she would also find her way into the circle on occasions for the Gators.

“We didn’t have too many pitchers this past year and one day in practice I threw a pitch. The coach saw it and told me going forward that I was the team’s number two pitcher. I thought that he was joking, but it turns out he wasn’t.”

Donaldson remembers being in centerfield during a game in which Grafton was getting beat up when Coach John Gemme signaled her in from the outfield to pitch. The outfielder was beside herself.

“All the way in I was laughing. This can’t be real, I have no experience pitching at all,” she recalled. “I got five warm-up pitches and then they restarted the game. I just tried to pitch as accurately as I could so I wouldn’t walk anyone, but they were hitting me.”

With the way things have gone for her over the past few seasons who knows where she will be playing come next spring when she steps on the field as a senior. She is not going to try and attempt to learn how to throw certain pitches with only one year left and her coach isn’t expecting her to. 

“If I am called upon to pitch again next year I am just going to try and focus on my accuracy. Coach Gemme doesn’t want me to try and learn anything new, it would just lead to walks,” she said. “I hope that I don’t have to pitch next year as I believe that we have some pitchers coming up. I’d rather stick to shortstop,, where I’ll work on my fundamentals and footwork during the offseason.”

While taking the field as the team’s short stop, Donaldson is just hoping to go out next spring and have fun in her final year at Grafton. 

“This summer I was back in center field for my travel team and during the fall and winter I’m going to be working on my footwork trying to get better and ready for my last season,” Donaldson said.

Following her senior campaign, she is planning on playing one more year during summer ball and will most likely hang up her spikes after that.