It wasn’t that long ago that the Salisbury High School softball team endured a lot of losing seasons, including losing 42 straight Colonial League games between 2022 and the 2025 seasons.

Even with all of the losing, one characteristic of the team was that the players never got down on one another. They would cheer every catch that was made. Give a pat on the back and encouragement with every error. They were truly a team. Still, the losing was tough.

Brian Fehnel, the coach of the Lehigh Valley Carpenter Cup softball team, took over as coach at Salisbury for the 2025 season.

“We started working to instill confidence,” said Fehnel. “I’m a stickler for playing the game the right way and playing defense. We work really hard on defense. We work really hard on pitching.”

This past winter, in addition to indoor hitting, an athletic trainer worked with the team to stress strength and conditioning.

“It was a big deal for us. We hit all winter, two days a week at the high school, it all matters,” explained Fehnel. “They just have to have fun. They’re finally having some fun and finding some success and that’s a big deal. It’s just getting that confidence.”

Last season, after losing its first six league games, Salisbury snapped their 42 game losing skid in the league when it beat Jim Thorpe 18-12. The Falcons went on to finish 5-12 in Colonial League play in 2025.

This season, the best story in local softball has been the Falcons.

The team that has just 11 players on its roster and none are seniors. It is 8-6 in the Colonial League and 10-6 overall. The Falcons have clinched a playoff spot in districts and are closing in on getting their first league playoff spot since 2018.

As a junior, Jenna Swoyer has been here for lean times and has been part of the resurgence.

“I think the energy was really low before,” said Swoyer, who along with Tessa Kemmerer has provided strong pitching with a team ERA of 3.30 this season. “Now, I feel like we kind of work up and we know what we’re doing now, and I feel like we keep going. We’ll get far.”

The team has played well all season, but its statement win was knocking off undefeated Palmerton a couple of weeks ago.

The Blue Bombers were rolling through the league until losing to Salisbury 7-2.

As if to prove that wasn’t a fluke, Salisbury came back six days later and beat Notre Dame of Green Pond 4-3. The Crusaders came into that game 10-3 and 9-2 in league games.

Swoyer held Palmerton to two runs and Kemmerer held Notre Dame to three runs and hit one of her three home runs this season in the win over the Crusaders.

Sophomores Sophia Gunning and Gianna Olds hit one-and-two in the lineup and combined for five hits, three runs scored, and three runs batted in to beat Notre Dame.

Freshman Brinlee Neitz was watching her older sister Bailee, play for the team during the worst of times. Now, she gets to be a part of turning the program around.

“When I came to her games, it just didn’t seem like a fun thing to do,” said Brinlee Neitz. “Now, the attitude is really fun and we’re winning. We are all really positive. It feels great to be a part of this, especially as a freshman.”

Another freshman, Julia Carney, leads the team with a .519 average this season and had three hits and five RBI in a recent win over Wilson.

“We all felt really good when we beat Palmerton; it just felt so great,” said Carney. “We came out and we showed them who we are. They probably thought they were going to beat us and we proved them wrong.”

They could be the two biggest wins of Fehnel’s tenure as the team’s head coach.

“Kudos to the girls, because those two games were huge,” said Fehnel. “Teams see that our girls have put in a lot of hard work and that they’re serious about how they play the game.

“They see we’re not a pushover anymore.”