“They know they’re a completely different team,” Castner said on Thursday. “Well, not completely different. We’ve got a lot of girls back on paper. We definitely want to get back to where we were and win a couple more games, but that’s a long way off. We talked about that a week ago. They know that we have to take care of things now. That’s all down the road. It will be there, but it won’t be if we don’t take care of the little things. There will be a big price. We have to make sure to stay the course. We have to make sure to play with maximum effort.”
The Firebirds were scheduled to open their season this weekend in Tennessee with a doubleheader on Saturday, followed by a single game on Sunday. Lakota West, which finished 30-2 overall and 18-0 in the Greater Miami Conference on the way to being ranked No. 1 in the final state softball coaches association Division I poll, was due to open conference play on Tuesday at Hamilton.
The Firebirds lost just two seniors from the starting lineup for last season’s semifinal game. Among the returning players is pitcher K.K. Mathis, who led the conference with 13 home runs and 50 runs batted in while going 20-2 with a 1.47 ERA in 22 games, including 21 complete games. Outfielder Belle Hummel led the GMC with a .611 batting average last season. Infielder Molly Grace was second with a .610 batting average and with 48 RBIs.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
While blessed with high levels of talent among the returning players, Castner liked what he was seeing in pre-season workouts.
“We’re doing good,” he said. “We have very good leadership. We haven’t been hitting the ball as well as we should, but that should hopefully come around. We’re thinking it will. The fielding and the baserunning have been good.
“The best thing about it is we have some great competition at some positions. We’ve got some girls trying new positions, and it’s going to make us better. It’s going to help us tremendously. I go back to the 2004-2005 season. We had 10 seniors then. We have 10 seniors now. This year and that year, we had best friends fighting for positions. They’re going at it hard. It’s going to make us even better, yet they’re still best friends.”
Castner, who spent 10 years as a softball assistant at Lakota High School before getting the head job at Lakota West when the district split the high school into two for the 1997-1998 season, felt lucky to have been able to squeeze in three of four scheduled scrimmages before the start of the regular season.
“We’ve just got to keep playing together as a team,” he said. “We’re doing a good job at that.”
Area teams, players to watch
Fairfield: Pitcher Ryleigh Peters racked up 78 strikeouts last season as a freshman. Shortstop Jessi Mathews smacked six home runs.
Hamilton: Pitcher Nevaeh Woods finished last season with 10 wins as a freshman.
Badin: The Rams finished 22-6 overall and 14-0 in the Greater Catholic League Co-Ed Division behind first Kortney Cummins and Sydney Feenstra, both first-team all-league picks as juniors. Haley Drott earned second-team honors as a junior, while Erin Beeber and Rachel Nusky were second-team picks as sophomores. Paige Luebbe received honorable mention as a junior.
Ross: The Rams reached a Division II district final while going 21-7 overall and 11-4 in the Southwest Ohio Conference to share the championship with Edgewood and Harrison. Catcher-infielder Myrissa Combs hit .523 and finished second in the SWOC with 37 RBIs as a freshman.
Edgewood: Kadence Kimberlin batted .423 as a junior.
Talawanda: Rachel Dsuban led the SWOC with 42 RBIs as a junior. Pitcher McKenna Weekley finished second in the SWOC with 78 strikeouts as a freshman.
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