Siobhan Reen Covers All The Bases

Having rotated through every possible position, some regrettably, on the softball field since she got involved with the sport, Norwood’s Siobhan Reen finally found one that she not only enjoyed but was good at.
“Previously I had played just about every position, especially a lot in centerfield, which was not my favorite,” Reen said. “Eventually, I found one that I really enjoyed. Playing second base there’s much more action than in centerfield and it keeps your head in the game.”
Since joining the high school team as a freshman, Reen has been the starting second baseman for Coach Carol Savino. However, this spring the Mustangs found that they had a lot of vacancies throughout the field and Reen gave up her home for the past three seasons and moved over to play shortstop.
“We graduated a lot of seniors from last year’s team and had some holes to fill if we wanted to be successful this year,” Reen said. “Coach moved me over to short, I’d prefer second, but it’s not that huge of a difference.”
As the team’s shortstop, Reen has to now field a lot more balls hit her way than when she was playing second in addition to learning the position and the angles – something she picked up with relative ease.
“I can’t say enough about her, she’s absolutely wonderful and a true second baseman,” Coach Savino said. “She’s a great leader and captain and works hard with the younger girls to improve their game.”
Reen’s softball career actually began playing for the Norwood little league before she hooked up with Savino’s club team, the Mass Drifters. In the high school lineup, her coach had her leading off due to her speed, but this season she got pushed down into the three hole for the Mustangs, once again due to the newcomers on the squad.
“She’s a very fast girl and speed is something that you cannot teach,” Savino said. “I call her Happy Feet. As a freshman, her feet were always going before her brain told her what to do.”
The senior captain, who was also a member of the high school gymnastics team and played soccer, likes using her speed in the base paths. While unsure of her stats, Reen believes she has 37 career stolen bases.
“I’ve always been fast, but Coach Savino had me focus that speed for softball,” Reen said. “Stealing is my thing. Up until this year I use to be the leadoff hitter because of my speed and ability to steal a base when we needed it.”
Although she didn’t bat at the top of the order this season, the senior infielder had a very productive year. Reen improved her batting average for the fourth straight year hitting .631 at the plate with 21 RBIs, 5 homeruns, and added a .921 fielding percentage in the field.
Coming into her final high school season Reen and her teammates were just hoping to do well enough to get another shot in the Division 1 South Tournament.
“As a captain in my final year, I just wanted to keep everyone in a positive mood and keep moving in the right direction,” Reen said. “We didn’t expect to go 14-4 with all the holes that we needed to fill.”
Norwood grabbed a 10 seed in the tournament and went on to defeat Stoughton and Walpole before getting knocked out by Milford. With her high school softball career now complete, Reen is looking to possibly walk onto the University of Rhode Island team; something her coach believes is a strong possibility.
“Siobhan didn’t reach out to the URI coach right away,” the Mustang Coach said. “I told her I would call the school and let them know about her skills, but she should walk on and try to make the team. She can definitely help them with her speed.”
Although she truly enjoys playing softball and knows that she could help the team, Reen was not originally sure that playing softball in college was a good thing.
“I am going to school for physical therapy and didn’t know if playing college softball would conflict with my school work,” Reen said. “However, as this season came closer to ending I was already finding myself missing it. I am going to keep playing all summer and be ready for college and hope that I can make the team as a walk on.”
There should be no doubt that once the URI coaching staff sees the abilities she possesses that Reen will be a shoe in to be part of the Rams team somewhere.