The Cranston East softball team enjoyed a bounce back season last spring and reached the Division III playoffs after multiple years away. Through the first week of action this year, the Bolts look like a playoff team once again, and have their sights set even further as they prepare to make a splash in the coming months.

East beat Tiverton 4-2 in the season opener then rolled to a 12-0 win over Central last week to improve to 2-0. The Bolts beat the Knights in just six innings.

Freshman Isabella Sousa has already turned heads through two starts in the circle for East, allowing just one earned run across 13 innings while racking up 25 strikeouts in that span.

“It’s been great, she’s such a hard worker. It’s no surprise that’s she’s so successful. She comes into practice every day trying to be better than the last day. We lost Trisha (Lizarda) and weren’t sure what we were going to do, but Izzy stepped up,” said East coach Jordan McHale, who returns for her second season as head coach.

The East offense has also surged in the early going, getting home runs from Leanna Garcia and Samaya Imondi, while Nevaeh Fatorma leads the team with five runs. Jaeda Viveiros has knocked in five runs as well.

“We’re an all-around team. We’ve got the pitching, the fielding and hitting. We’ve had two home runs in two games, it’s looking really good,” said McHale.

After getting a taste of playoff action last season, McHale feels that the returning players enter this season with quality experience and are ready to take another step forward while they continue to rebuild the program.

“It’s huge. It was such a building year last year. We had some great seniors that led the way and they really paved the way for us to pick up where we left off last year. They’re excited to come back (after some down years), it’s huge for them and you can see how excited they are,” said McHale.

Playing with confidence will also be key for the Bolts, according to McHale.

“Confidence in general and seeing that we are a good team and we can keep building on what we have. That was the biggest thing a few years ago, there was doubt there. If we can be confident throughout the entire season, then we’re going to go far,” McHale said.

East will next take on Davies at home on Thursday then will hit the road to take on Exeter-West Greenwich and Rogers.