Nancy Gray is just a sophomore but she has already proven to be a jack of all trades for the Princeton High softball team.

After starting at catcher in her freshman season, she moved to third base this spring.

Last Thursday, Gray showed another facet of her game, handling the pitching duties against the Princeton Day School.

The righty looked like a veteran in the circle, striking out seven and giving up just one hit as PHS cruised to a 16-1 victory over the Panthers in three innings.

“I was excited to pitch, it is my first time pitching this season,” said Gray. “It was a good first trial at my pitching for my high school career. I would say my curve and fastball were working.”

Having been around the game since grade school, Gray is happy to work anywhere on the field.

“I played catcher last year; I was going to play shortstop but I like third,” said Gray.

“I have been playing softball my whole life, since I was 6. I am OK with any position, really.”

Gray is also contributing at the bat, hitting a homer and scoring two runs in the PDS game.

“Last year I wasn’t really making contact but this year over the winter, I did some training,” said Gray. “I think my bat has woken up and I have gotten better.”

In Gray’s view, the win over PDS should help the Little Tigers feel better about themselves.

“It is a morale booster, we can come off this with a little confidence,” said Gray.

PHS head coach Dave Boehm liked how Gray came through against the Panthers.

“She did well,” said Boehm. “She caught all the time for us last year so I didn’t see her pitch at all. She is 100 percent better at her hitting.”

Boehm is hoping that his team can find a rhythm after spending most of the preseason training indoors due to the wintry spring.

“We are playing better, not having any scrimmages really hurt us; the first two games were kind of like our first two scrimmages,” said Boehm, referring to his team’s 10-0 loss to Robbinsville on April 1 and 5-2 defeat to Hamilton on April 7.

“We have a catcher that is now a third baseman (Gray), the third baseman (junior Stephanie Wu) is playing shortstop, we have a new center fielder (freshman Bianca Guidi). It is four
different positions that kids have never played. They are getting it narrowed down, they are getting used to it. Once they get squared away, we’ll be OK.”

In Beohm’s view, PHS is headed in the right direction. “I am happy with all of them, even in the Hamilton West game, I was happy with the way we played,” said Boehm, whose team lost 12-0 to Notre Dame last Monday to move to 1-3 and is slated to host Steinert on April 15, WW/P-N on April 17, and Nottingham on April 20.

“We made a couple of errors but that is bound to happen when you are not going to be on a field. We are finally getting on the field and we are doing OK.”

Gray, for her part, is confident that that things will go OK this spring.

“We have to work on the small things,” said Gray. “We are just going game by game, looking at what we should do.”