If a girl is athletically on a bubble which this one likely was, and she chooses her priorities where softball comes second, then her decisions will have consequences. In this case they obviously did.
Actually, while she is hardly a superstar, she is athletically comparable to the other varsity players from last year and better than most of the new varsity players.
That same thing is going to happen to her all of her life, because it happens to all of us. We all want our cake and want to eat it to. It isn't any fairer for her to make Varsity and be singing in an air conditioned room while the other girls on the team work 2-4 hours per day on the field sweating, aching and grinding it out.
It's not like she's new to the varsity or to playing with these girls. She's been playing with most of them since the age of 10 or so. And it's not like she would miss every practice, just a few. She also probably put in more work in the off-season than most of them. Not that that's the issue here, but I point it out for information.
In my opinion it's not having your cake and eating it too. It's being a teen and taking part in various school activities, exploring your abilities. There will be plenty of time for specialization as an adult. School activities should support one another, not fight each other. Adults should be able to work out things between each other without punishing kids.
Or perhaps the girl had proven to be 100% committed to softball in the past, worked twice as hard during off season lifting/running, was a proven leader in the dugout and on the field, but got in trouble because the idiot she went on a first date with had something stashed under the seat of his car and then got pulled over for speeding and she got in trouble as a result.
First, the school allegedly has a zero tolerance policy. Second, the girl was caught drinking at a party, which is a violation of said policy.
To me, the message the school is sending is "If you want to play varsity softball, you are better off going to a party, getting roaring drunk and getting arrested by the police than participating in another school activity."