Tri County’s Daelyn Hiduchick – Keeping Up Family Softball Tradition

Growing up in a family where not only her mother, but her grandmother played softball, it was only fitting that Tri-County’s Daelyn Hiduchick found her way onto the field as well. The Medway native began playing softball for the town leagues when she was in second grade and hasn’t looked back since. Since the beginning of her Medway softball career Hiduchick found herself playing the outfield, primarily right field, because she was left handed.
Upon entering Tri-County, the Medway native decided to give softball a shot, but didn’t realize how much different it would be compared to town play.
“The tryouts were extremely stressful and freaked me out, because of the talent of the girls,” she said. “But when I made the junior varsity team, I was really excited and fell in love with my coach (Steph Caffrey). The entire team was awesome and very welcoming, making it a comfortable transition.”
For her freshman and sophomore season, she continued to play the outfield for Coach Caffrey and never in her wildest dreams thought would she make it onto the varsity squad, but in her junior year, she cracked the team and along came a pleasant surprise.
“Not only was it great to make the varsity team, but Coach Caffrey also moved up, taking over. That was very important to me, as she knew me and what I needed to work on to succeed and what I was already capable of doing,” Hiduchick said.
The Coach knew that the then junior possessed a strong suit for running the bases and used her in that role extensively.
“She is a very smart individual on the bases,” the coach said. “She’s one of the few that I don’t have to really worry about her running the bases; she’ll do what is needed.”
Finding herself for the most part as a pinch runner, the first time varsity player was not thrilled with her role in the beginning.
“Originally, I was disappointed that I was not getting the chance to play in the field, but I soon realized how important running the bases was in games,” she said. “Sitting on the bench watching the seniors not only allowed me to grow as a player, but I learned a lot about the game.”
While running was her main job, Hiduchick did find herself playing second base on a few occasions that season, despite only playing the position in practice. The first time she took to the field at second base she said it was quite nerve racking, but once the game started and the adrenaline took over she was fine.
The few experiences playing the infield in game situations only fueled the fire to make her want to play more. Having worked hard during the off-season between her junior and senior campaigns eventually paid off. This year, the senior captain finds herself not only playing the outfield in a utility role, but will also DH for the team.
“Daelyn is super dedicated and worked hard. In addition to bringing a good attitude toward the team, she knows what her role is and embraces it,” Caffrey said. “I decided to use her at DH, because she’s very quick from the left side of the plate; she’s not a power hitter but gets the job done with base hits.”
While the coach was optimistic about her at the plate, the senior didn’t share her positive outlook.
“I really don’t mind being a DH, but I was really surprised,” Hiduchick said. “My batting average was not that good; in fact I think it was close to 0.”While softball may have been in her genes from the get go, the Medway native also enjoys participating in cheering at Tri-County, but it wasn’t something that she was actively looking to do.
“I was the football manager, and the cheerleading coach came up to me and told me to try out for the winter team my junior year,” she said. “I like both sports equally, but they are both totally different. In cheering you have two and a half minutes to show what you’ve got right there and then; in softball, you have seven innings to get things done.”
While her cheering career at Tri-County is over Hiduchick still has the rest of the softball season to help get her Cougar teammates into the State Tournament. After high school she is unsure of which sport, if any, she’ll take part in at college.