The De Soto High School varsity softball team started the 2014 season off strong. The team went 2-0 at their first set of games on April 1.

The team has been spending time in practice focusing on the basics to ensure they can avoid mistakes in their games.

“We’ve been working on fundamentals a lot just to make sure those are solid and we don’t mess up the little things,” said senior varsity pitcher Mackenzie Lancaster said.

The team will continue to work on finer details as well as batting to prepare for future games.

“We just need to work every day to improve. We’ve got to get better as far as our hitting technique and also just little things in the field,” said varsity softball coach Junelle Woolery.

This year the varsity team has a new mix of people due to losing several seniors. After a successful season and state title last year, the team is hoping to have another successful season, however there are challenges that come with a newer team.

“There are just new player mistakes not being used to the Varsity game. That’s the biggest factor,” Lancaster said.

In their first game, the team did not start off strong, but they ended up with an 8-6 win.

“We all stayed very positive, and we kept working hard even though for the majority of the first game we were down by five. We kept our heads up and kept doing what we were supposed to do, and we pulled through and won it,” Lancaster said.