Young TVS Team Wins Opener

A young TVS fastpitch team won their first game of the season with a close win over Stivers this past week.  And to add even more tension to opening day, South had several players miss the game due to a class trip to France.   They had just enough players to field a team.  The past two season’s South has been able to start a senior on the mound.  But this year junior Ashley Robertson is penciled in as the Ace.  But with her being away on the trip, Freshman Delany Adams was tapped to take the mound.  It is doubly tough when your first start is also opening day.

However the young pitcher performed well in her first outing.  Stivers had a slim lead early, but South went ahead with a big 4^th inning where they captured the lead.  Stivers had a big inning of their own in the 7th,  as Adams arm seemed to tire.  But she buckled down and with the help of her teammates, held off Stivers for a 9-8 win.  And the young pitcher helped her own cause, going 3 for 4 from the plate.   Lacey Emrick had 2 triples.  And senior Alyssa Kube had a base running mistake where she was tagged out – you could tell she was frustrated with herself for the misplay.  But later in the game she touched all the bases when she hit a solid home run over the fence and made good. 

It was a soggy week and the weather cleared enough for the team to play a Saturday double header against an experienced Preble Shawnee squad.  Their fortunes were not as good as the team went down both games (16-0, 11-0) with one of those games being a no hitter.   Lacey Emrick, Alyssa Kube, Delany Adams, and Sophie Cottingim were the only Panther players to make contact with the ball.

Coach Robinson was happy with the season opener, but frustrated by the double header, “We had a tough day of being schooled by a very good Shawnee softball team.  We didn't hit the ball well, and we didn't field the ball well either.  Our pitchers struggled at times, but it's discouraging when you finally get the batter to put the ball in play for a routine out, and we don't field it cleanly or we throw the ball away.  That kind of sums up both games, not to say that Shawnee didn't have some great hits, they did.  We just had too many missed opportunities to keep the scores a lot closer.”

She continued, “Having only 5 experienced players back this year is tough.  We've got some potential in some of our younger players, but they just haven't played enough softball.  We have 3 on our roster that had never even seen a fastpitch softball game.  So until we can get these kids some viable experience, we're going to struggle.  But having said that, we are going to get better, and we will be competitive with some teams before the season is over.  The younger players have been very coachable and they're eager to get better.  Hopefully by mid-season, we'll have seen a lot of improvement in our team.”