10/25/2018
By Ed Brennen
Shortstop Courtney Cashman has already made quite a name for herself on the River Hawks softball team, earning America East All-Conference First Team honors and the 2018 Lester H. Cushing Award as UML’s top female student-athlete as a sophomore last year.
And Cashman knows her way around the baseball diamond, too. Last summer, she became the first woman to play in the 90-year-old Intertown Twilight League, joining her brothers, Timothy and Justin, on the Rowley Rams.
Thanks to her mom, Jeannie, Cashman grew up a diehard Sox fan in Danvers. “My mom always had a team photo, and I had to be able to tell her every player’s name,” Cashman recalls. “If I couldn’t do it, she would tell me the name and then I would go outside and run a lap around my backyard, and then I would try again.”
Cashman certainly knows the names of this year’s Red Sox (Jackie Bradley Jr. is her favorite player because of his humble nature and dedication to the team). She’s thrilled to see them playing in their fourth World Series in her lifetime.
“When they broke the curse in 2004, it was an indescribable feeling,” Cashman says. “To see them in the World Series for the fourth time in 14 years just shows that they have set a team culture of hard work and dedication.”
Cashman sees chemistry, coaching, depth and a never-say-die attitude as the key ingredients this season for the Sox, who she predicts will beat LA.
“It's going to be a tough fight, but I’m confident the Red Sox will win,” she says. “They are the best team in baseball right now, and they will fight until they reach their ultimate goal: World Series champions.”