Softball preview: Senior-heavy team boasts depth in pitching

Laura Clark
Published: March 7, 2008

2007 recap: 17-9 record, lost in regional quarterfinals to Cave Springs

Coaching staff: Larry Thomas, head coach; Melinda Ellis, JV coach; Crystal Mays, assistant coach; Christy Mays, assistant coach; George Maddox, volunteer pitching coach

Key returning players: Chelsey Lacks, senior pitcher; Bianca Gilmore, senior pitcher/first baseman; Laura McCray, senior right fielder; Kyla Rose, senior shortstop, First Team All-District second baseman for the last three seasons

Four Questions for coach Thomas:

Q: How is the team shaping up, and where is your leadership?

A: Well, Kyla (Rose) has come to me early, and she’s willing to do whatever it takes. She has shown she’s willing to work hard, shown the leadership, and shown the other girls that they need to work hard. This is her senior year, and she wants to win. She knows it’s going to take a lot of hard work to do it.

They want to win the district, which is our goal. We want to win the region and get to the state, where anything can happen. We’ve got a very competitive team this year. We’ve always had a good defense. This year I feel we’re a well-rounded team. We’re going to have a strong defense again.

We’re going to have a strong batting lineup.

Pitching is going to be strong this year. We’ve got three quality pitchers that we can go to in any situation.

I feel like we will be more competitive as a team in the league. We’ve been around fourth or fifth in the league. I think we’re going to challenge more this year. We’ve got a good chance of being district champions, just as good as anybody else in the league does.

Nothing is a given, but with the power that we have, and the defense, plus the pitching that we haven’t had as much in the past, it gives you the feeling that you’re more complete. We’ve shored up some of those weak spots we’ve had in the past. I don’t have a lot of depth in the outfield. I may have to pull someone up from JV.

Q: Who will we see on the mound?

A: We have Bianca Gilmore back, which was a real pleasant surprise. (Gilmore was out last season with a torn ACL.) She has a lot of power, lot of pop on her pitches.

We have Chelsey Lacks, a senior pitcher. She has a lot of control, can place the ball and has three, four different pitches.

And Sydney Lewis, who is in tenth grade. We broke her into varsity last year. She’s our left-hander.

So we have three different pitchers that a batting lineup would have to look at and adjust to. That gives us an edge there, instead of having to rely on one pitcher. It allows us to practice more during the week. It gives our batters more to look at. We don’t have to keep working one pitcher all the time, so we can keep them fresher. It should give us an advantage in the long run, especially as the season wears on and gets down to the end.

Q: Who are your power hitters?

A: Kyla’s going to start things off. We don’t have the speed that we have had in the past. Kyla’s probably our quickest base runner, and will start and lead things off. Kyla can bunt and slap, plus she can get the power. She’s probably our most versatile batter.

We have some good power behind her. April Pugh can hit the ball hard. Shauna Douglas hits the ball hard. Bianca Gilmore can hit the ball extremely hard. Terri Thompson can hit. I would say overall we have more power in the lineup this year. Where we have tried to dink the ball or just put the ball in play, this year we’re going to hit with more power from top to bottom.

Q: What’s your focus as the season begins?

A: We’re always shoring up our defense. And to make sure we’re doing things fundamentally sound. That’s the main thing. If you can do things right and cut down on your errors, that’s the thing we always stress. And working on our pitching. We’re going through batting drills right now. Before, we were just hitting off the machine. Now we’re rotating the pitchers through for an inning to work on her pitches, let the batters face her. Then we’ll rotate another pitcher in. So not only are the pitchers working on different pitches, the batters are facing different pitches and adjusting to the pitching.