Published June 30, 2021
By STEPHEN MARTELLUCCI
LYNNFIELD — The Cape Ann League softball coaches recently met to pick their All-Star team and two Lynnfield High players made the squad. The two Pioneers to make the CAL First-Team All-Stars are senior co-captains Reilly Ganter and Chloe Shapleigh.
Ganter, a pitcher who will be attending the Tilton School in New Hampshire this fall, went 7-2 in the circle this spring with an earned-run average of 4.55. At bat, she hit .415 with 15 runs batted in and she scored 14 times. She was a CAL Second-Team All-Star in 2019.
Shapleigh, who plays shortstop, led the Pioneers in hitting, batting .630. She led the team in average, runs scored (25), RBI (22) and home runs (four). Shapleigh was a Second-Team All-Star as a freshman and she is going to Endicott College in September to play softball and hockey.
“They were our mainstay players,” said Pioneers head coach Peter Marinelli. “Without them, we would have been in a lot of trouble this year.”
The Pioneers finished at 8-6 overall as they lost to guest Winthrop in the first round of the Division 3 North state tournament 14-1 on June 21.
They tied Newburyport for second place in the CAL Kinney Division behind North Reading going 8-5.
“I didn’t know what to expect heading into the season,” admitted Marinelli, who just wrapped up his 10th year at the helm. “Three of the players who played for us two years ago did not come back but the girls who replaced them gave 100 percent and we had a good season.”
Ganter and Shapleigh are the two seniors on the team as the Pioneers are slated to return 11 veterans next spring. “We have some good players coming back,” said Marinelli, who will have a much more experienced team in 2022.
