For the Western Nebraska Community College softball team, their pitching staff is not afraid to swing the bat and they have produced at the plate.
The Cougars will need plenty of hitting when they open the Region IX tournament Friday in Trinidad, Colo. The No. 16-ranked Cougars enter the tournament as the No. 2 seed and will face Otero Junior College at 4 p.m. Last year, WNCC won the regional title behind the pitching of sophomore Kelsey Garner.
Garner, who earned player of the year and freshman of the year last year in helping the Cougars to the regional tournament, knows that they have to be ready to play from the start.
“I am going to tell the team you have to play hard right from the very first inning all the way to the seventh,” she said. “Also, everyone comes to play and anyone can win on any given day.”
The one area that stands out for the 40-16 Cougars this season is they have plenty of offensive weapons, and the three pitchers, Garner, Casey Simpson and Stephanie Townsend have been on a home run mission as of late. The three have combined for 17 home runs of the team’s 45 hit this season. Last week, the threesome had 11t home runs in 10 games.
Simpson hit five jacks, including two each in separate games, while Townsend had four home runs and Garner two. Garner leads the pitchers with home runs with eight. The team leader in home runs is Katie Groves with 15.
“I think it is different for us to hit home runs because usually pitchers don’t hit,” Garner said. “But I think it is good to show people that our pitchers are just as good as everybody else at the plate.”
Definitely the three pitchers have produced from the plate this season. In the 10 games last week, the Cougars as a team hit .457 and had a slugging percentage of .740. Five players had a slugging percentage of 1,000 or better, three of which came from the pitching group.
The home run power isn’t a big surprise to the three hurlers; they have hit plenty of home runs before. But coming to college they don’t get a lot of at bats, so when they get that home run, it means something.
“I primarily was a batter before coming here, so coming here has been a big change for me,” Simpson said. “I haven’t been in the line up as much, so hitting a couple of home runs over the past few games has been really big for me because I have become more confident as a hitter.”
For Townsend, her home run power does come as a surprise as she was a power hitter, as well as the clean-up batter for her high school team.
“I am kind of surprised that I hit home runs last week,” she said. “I hit home runs in high school, and it is not surprising that I am hitting like this here, it is just surprising how she puts me in.”
A lot of times, Townsend or Simpson come up as pinch hitters. That says a lot of the confidence that WNCC coach Maria Winn-Ratliff has in her pitching staff as hitters.
“I get a little nervous [when called upon as a pinch hitter],” Townsend said. “But I just have to try to put the ball into play because she believes in me to put me in as a pinch hitter. “
For Simpson and Townsend, it will be their first regional tournament. They, however, know they have to be ready to go at any moment.
“I think we have to go in really focused,” Simpson said. “We have been playing really well against Otero and Trinidad and team likes that, but we struggle with teams like Lamar. It will be a matter of going out and being really focused and determined so we can come out with a win.”
Hitting will be one of the keys in bringing home back to back Region IX championships. But, like Garner said, it is not about getting home runs, they need to get hits to score runs.
“Hopefully, we can keep hitting like this at regionals and come out with, if not home runs, but runs right from the first inning,” she said.
Townsend is hoping the team continues hitting at the pace they have been the last two weeks of the season, especially last week, when they had 14 home runs, 11 of which came from the three pitchers.
“At first we went into a slump, so now we are starting to pull together,” she said. “We will have to play together and bring out the bats like we did last weekend.”
The pitchers all agree that a major reason for the home runs that the team has hit this season is because of head coach Maria Winn-Ratliff’s batting philosophy.
“I think it is the swing style that coach Winn teaches,” Garner said. “Everyone is starting to get more used to it and use it in games.”
That batting style is starting to pay off. In the last 10 games, the Cougar hitters have had 45 extra base hits, including 23 doubles and 20 home runs. On the season, they have 154 extra base hits, including 98 doubles.
Last season, the team finished with 215 extra base hits, including 134 doubles, 22 triples and 59 home runs on their way to a 54-10 season. Two years ago, the team had just 123 doubles and 41 home runs.
And for the Cougars to repeat as champions, they will need to come ready to play, no question about it.
“We can absolutely win regionals,” Simpson said. “I think we can as long as we come out focused. If we really want it, we can have it because we have a lot the talent that would work for us.”
No comments:
Post a Comment