Saratoga pitcher Mulholland reflects on softball career, future at Siena College

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY » While the four seniors on the Blue Streaks softball team aren’t planning on playing college softball, they are each getting ready to begin the next chapter of their lives. Some are going to stay close to home and others are going a bit further away.

Those seniors include Madison Clark, Maya Yefimenko, Ella Ouimet and McKenna Mulholland. Clark, a shortstop, plans on attending New England University in Biddeford, ME. Yefimenko will study cellular and molecular biology at SUNY Brockport and Ouimet, a middle infielder and outfielder, will attend the University of Buffalo.

Mulholland will be attending Siena College and is still deciding what her major will be.

“I liked that Siena was smaller than a lot of the other schools that I visited. It seemed like I would get a lot more one- on- one time

with my professors,” Mulholland said. “I also looked at the University of Buffalo, where my brother goes, and SUNY Oneonta. I liked how close Siena was and the campus was really nice.”

During her junior season as a Blue Streak, Mulholland started to get some innings from inside the circle and figured to get a bulk of the work as a senior.

“I was excited to pitch and to get more innings than I did last year,” she said, continuing on about the season being cancelled. “I got the text frommy teammates and coach that the season wasn’t going to happen. I was really upset about it because I was really looking forward to playing this year.”

The senior pitcher thought her team was going to build on the improvements they had to begun to make last season.

“Last year we lost a lot of games in the beginning of the season and then started to get better as the season progressed. Then we had winter workouts all offseason. I thought we would have been ready this year to give it our best and to win a lot of games because of all the preparation we did,” Mulholland said.

She continued, speaking about her thoughts on possibly playing softball at the next level.

“A few years ago I really wanted to play college softball, but I didn’t realize how much work it actually was. I feel like, for me, it would be pretty hard to balance softball and academics in college for my first year.”

Going to college close to home will allow her to stay involved in the Saratoga community, as well as start fresh on the Siena campus.

“My Dad created Kelly’s Angels, along with my brother Connor and I, in honor of my mom. We give grants to kids who have lost a parent or sibling to cancer or another illness. It’s really special to me because we’re helping people who have been through the same things that I’ve been through,” Mulholland said, whose mom lose her battle with cancer in 2007.

“It was a hard time for me when I lost my mom, so it’s nice to be able to provide a little light when they’re going through a hard time. I know

I would have wanted something like that, even though I had lots of support. They get to do whatever they want with the money, just to have fun and get their minds off of things.”

Mulholland has been dealt her fair share of adversity. This past spring has only added to the list. She believes that her strange senior year at Saratoga might help her adapt to a possible strange freshman year at Siena.

“I think I’ll definitely be more prepared for things that come my way that are unexpected. Nobody ever thought something like school getting shut down would happen or close for as long as it did. It just shows that something like this could happen again and we’ll have a better idea of what to do, if it does,” she said.