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MEMBERS OF THE Grundy Lady
Wave softball squad for the 2006 season are, (from left)
kneeling: Kayla Viers, Amy Crouse, Sara Mullins, Sara Davis,
Molly Doud and Sarah Ratliff; standing: Kimberly Mullins, Holly
Childress, Amber Foster, Samantha Rice, Terri Stacy and Tasha
McGlothlin. (Staff photo/Mike Stiltner.)
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Lady Wave Softball Looking To Make
Some Noise in SWD |
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by Lloyd Combs
Sports Reporter
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Grundy
made the tournament.
Now it wants to make some noise.
Seven starters are back for the Lady Wave
softball squad, all of them juniors who worked hard to escape the
Southwest District cellar and qualify for the SWD post-season
tournament the past two seasons.
“We’re trying to build off last year,” says first-year
head Coach Anthony Church, an assistant the past two seasons. “We
made the district tournament the second year in a row and the
girls we have back have two years’ experience.”
The goal now is to focus on the same things
that helped the Lady Wave take that first big step up the SWD
ladder.
“I like our team’s chemistry,” Church added. “The
girls work hard in practice and they really want to get better.
Our goal is to play fundamental softball, make intelligent
decisions and play with an aggressive mentality.”
Among the team’s strengths are its pitching
and its experience in the infield. All-Southwest District hurler
Amber Foster, a junior, is developing into one of the top pitchers
in the area. Backup Samantha Rice gives the Lady Wave quality
pitching depth.
“Amber is a returning all-SWD selection,”
Church said. “She won six games last year.
“Our pitching staff should be pretty good
with Amber and Samantha. Samantha is improving and Amber is
already pretty solid.”
The infield includes four juniors.
Rice is at shortstop when she isn’t pitching. Sara Davis returns
at second base, Terri Stacy is back at third and Holly Childress
is at first, where she will share time with sophomore Kayla Viers.
“One of our strengths is our infield,”
Church added.
“We have four returning starters. Sara
Davis and Terri Stacy are pretty sure-handed.”
Junior catcher Amy Crouse is returning from
an injury. Two juniors and three freshmen will take care of the
Lady Wave outfield.
For more of the story, see the print
edition of the Mountaineer, on sale at newsstands now. For
more information on how to subscribe to the
Mountaineer, call 276-935-2123 today.
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May's
Grand
Slam
Lifts
Rebels
Past
Council
in BDD |
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by Lloyd Combs
Sports Reporter
There’s an old baseball saying that all it takes sometimes is ‘a
bloop and a blast.’ Hurley settled for a walk and a blast.
Kelly Sykes drew a bases-loaded
walk that forced home the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth
to give Hurley a 7-6 BDD win over Council Monday afternoon.
Council out-hit the Rebels 9-6, but
Hurley earned its first victory of the season by playing long
ball.
Catcher Josh Childress opened the
scoring for Hurley with a solo homer in the first inning while
Joey May added the biggest hit of the night in the third. The
Rebel rightfielder’s grand slam to right-center staked Hurley
(1-1, 1-0 BDD) to a 5-4 lead.
“We’ve got a hitter‘s park,” Hurley Coach
Wayne Hall said. “In practice, Joey has hit four or five off the
fence, and I kept telling him it’s going to come.
“I don’t even think he thought he hit
the ball that hard, but I told him let the bat do the work. That
was a big hit for us. Josh showed his presence, too.”
Childress and winning pitcher Shane Shelton
each went 2-for-3 for the Rebels. Jackson and Keagan Bostic each
had two hits for the Cobras.
Bostic, Corey Barton and Samantha
Breeding all drove in runs in the second, when the Cobras turned a
walk, a wild pitch and five singles, four of which never left the
infield, into four runs.
Council used a walk and hit batsmen
to tie the score at 6-6 with one out in the sixth, but left the
bases loaded as Shelton recorded back-to-back strikeouts.
The junior righthander struck out 14,
including five in a row at the end, to earn his first win of the
season. Wade Jackson allowed just six hits and fanned 11 while
taking the loss for Council (1-7, 0-1).
“Shane did a good job, he finished
strong,” Hall added. “He cut down on his walks. I thought Wade
Jackson did a good job, too.
“We don’t have a lot of speed in the
infield and that hurt (Shane) in the second. We need to work on
what to do on slow rollers, we still need to work on our base
running and we need to be more consistent.”
For more of the
story, see the print edition of the Mountaineer, on sale at
newsstands now. For more information on how to subscribe to the Mountaineer,
call 276-935-2123 today.
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