For the NYU softball team, coming together as a team this year is all about learning to communicate.

In the first season as a varsity sport at NYU, the Violets have struggled to the tune of a 2-16 record overall while going 0-10 in conference games. After opening the season with a 14-game losing streak, the team got the program’s first win when they swept a doubleheader against Brooklyn College on March 22.

As a captain of the team, junior shortstop Kahala Bonsignore said she believes the most important part is the team coming together to lead collectively in the inaugural season. Bonsignore was selected to the UAA All-Tournament Team and currently leads the team in batting average and RBIs.

“There are so many strong personalities here, and each person leads the team in their own special way,” Bonsignore said. “I try to lead by example and hope that my positive attitude and behavior will help lift the team throughout the season.”

Freshman center Colby Tarsitano attributed the early season issues with the fundamentals, but said they need to stay focused and make the plays.

“We’ve just struggled with little things like fundamentals,” Tarsitano said. “Our skill level on this team is incredibly high, it’s just a matter of putting it all together and creating a smooth flow.”

Freshman pitcher and second baseman Sage Scheiwiller discussed the importance of taking confidence from the first wins and applying them to the rest of the season.

“We know what we need to do now to win — at least what worked for those games — and we know that we can win,” Scheiwiller said.

Despite being only a freshman, Scheiwiller has also played a big role in the Violets’ successes this season, hitting .352 with a home run, which just so happened to be the first grand slam in the team’s history as well.

Offensively, the Violets have performed respectably, hitting .276 as a team while averaging 3.39 runs scored per game. The team has shown improvement hitting .237 in the first 14 losses but finding success since returning from the UAA Championship, with a .358 average in the next four games.

The defense, however, leaves something to be desired. The Violets currently hold a team ERA of 7.06 while allowing on average 8.5 runs per game. There have been eight games where the opposing team scored 10 or more runs.

“We are working on maintaining communication throughout the entire game,” Scheiwiller said. “Our play is respectable but we run into problems when we don’t communicate for the entire game.”

The high scores might be misleading though. The team has allowed a whopping 45 unearned runs to cross the plate, signaling that there may be some work needed in the field as well.

“I think more than anything, we make mental errors, and that’s just us beating ourselves,” Bonsignore said. “The talent and skill level is there; we’ve just got to get our minds in sync.”

Sophomore pitcher Jacqueline Tremblay acknowledged their struggles with communication, but says the team is improving in that area.

“We’re definitely still working on it but everyone has learned to be more vocal so we’re all on the same page,” Tremblay said.

Scheiwiller said she believes the team has much to look forward to by building off of what they’ve learned in the first half of the season.

“In a way, the lows have brought us closer together as a team and have prepared us for the highs of the seasons,” Scheiwiller said. “In the next half of the season we are going to take the things we learned in our harder games and use them in our future games.”

After a pair of postponements due to inclement weather, the Violets will hit the road to take on The College at Old Westbury on April 7 at 3 p.m.

A version of this article appeared in the Thursday, April 2 print edition. Email Alex Bazeley at [email protected].