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SPRING PREVIEW: Softball squads battle weather early
By Joey Bennett
Sports Editor
Like most teams, Putnam County softball squads have been battling bad weather in both finding good days to practice outside and to get in games scheduled early in the season.
The county tournament is set for April 14, so the next week shapes up as a big one as the other three schools try to work on defending Cloverdale as the county champion.
Greencastle was reclassified from Class 3A to 2A this year, and will host a sectional involving all four county teams and South Vermillion.
Here is a look at each Putnam County team:
Cloverdale
The Clovers return six defensive starters, including some of their top hitters.
“We must find a way to replace the loss of four seniors that led us in hitting and pitched nearly every game for the last four years,” Clover coach Jim Spencer said.
Third baseman and Hanover College signee Kiley Shedron batted .461 last year with 37 RBI, 12 doubles and two home runs.
Catcher Hannah Long hit .351 with 12 RBI, five doubles and one homer, while senior second baseman Dinah Bunch hit .316.
Junior center fielder Tori Combs batted .461 with 36 RBI, seven doubles and a school-record nine home runs.
Junior right-fielder Makenzie Allen hit .333 with 13 RBI, six doubles and a homer, while versatile sophomore Morgan Goss hit .277 with 16 RBI and five doubles.
Sophomore Macie Couch (2-0 in 2017) will take over the pitching duties from graduated two-time Putnam County “Pitcher of the year” Lauren Meek.
Kayleigh Basore (Sr/IF), Lilly Bean (Jr/IF), and Haley Smith (So./LF) have some varsity experience, and Spencer expects to get additional help from Holly Garretson (Jr/IF), Kacey Shedron (So./3b), Autumn Lewellen (Fr/IF) and Skylynne Lowe (Fr./IF).
“We have continued to get a little better each day in practice, but still have a long way to go,” Spencer said. “I really like this group and think we can continue to get better and hopefully be playing our best softball in late May. We actually have more depth on the roster than in the past.
Spencer likes the potential of his team, despite its inability to get on the field for game competition until Thursday.
“I really feel like this group can become a solid team with continued hard work and attention to detail and fundamentals,” he said. “We have a nice combination of experienced leadership and enthusiastic youth.”
North Putnam
The Cougars picked up a win over Eminence before spring break, but have been hampered since then by the weather and by players absent for spring break vacations.
First-year head coach Jarrod Duff, who has coached many of the players on his roster for the past two basketball seasons as well, likes where his team is at this point of the season.
“I obviously wish we had more practice time in and more time to work on certain things,” Duff said. “I have been really encouraged with how coachable the girls have been. I think Coach (Jim) Hess did a really good job the last couple of years and we are just trying to build upon that. “
The Cougars have a majority of their roster back from last season’s team.
“We have girls who have played a lot of softball over the years,” he said. “So, we are just trying to fine tune things offensively and defensively.”
The Cougar 12-player roster consists of four seniors and eight sophomores.
“Our seniors have done a really good job of leading by example,” Duff said. “Mia Runnells has had a good high school softball career. She is a talented player both at the plate and in the field.
“Having a player like Mia playing in the middle of our infield and in the middle of our batting order is a huge advantage for our team.”
Another senior that Duff is counting on is pitcher Chloe LaPierre.
“She has worked really hard over the last three months on her pitching,” he said. “She did not pitch for most of the season last year because of concerns with her shoulder.
“Having her on the mound more often this season is going to be nice,” Duff added. “Chloe is also a really strong hitter and a good defensive player.”
Jada Stump will serve as LaPierre’s catcher.
“Her experience behind the plate is a huge asset to our team,” Duff said. “She has proven how dedicated she is by coming in and working with our pitchers dating back to this winter. Jada is also a strong hitter.”
Senior Kaleigh Storm did not play last year but has returned to the sport.
“Having her back this season has made us really solid in the outfield,” Duff said. “She is an athletic kid who has really good instincts defensively. Kaleigh is also good at the plate.”
Several of the sophomores on the roster also got a lot of playing time last year as freshmen, Duff noted, as Emma Haste, Dana Tennis, Olivia Haste, Baylee Osburn, Haylee Cox, Clarissa Gibson and Bradi Gierke all got opportunities to gain varsity experience last season.
Duff noted he also has sophomore transfer Madison O’Neal available this year, and is very thankful for an experienced coaching staff.
“Coach (Jenny) Heron has done a great job with all of our pitchers,” he said. “She started working with them this winter. Chloe, Haylee and Bradi have all improved so much since Coach Heron started working with them in the winter, and having three different girls who can pitch really gives us an advantage as a team.”
Duff noted that assistants Hilary Vukovits and Chase Hiland have also been valuable assets as assistant coaches, and both have several years of experience.
“We have talked to the girls a lot about just making simple plays on the softball field,” he said. “When you make simple plays, you give yourself a chance to win games. We will continue to work on little things and hope to be playing our best softball when tournament time comes at the end of the season.“
South Putnam
Eagle coach Jamie Steffy is pleased with his turnout of 21 players, in spite of having no seniors (11 freshmen, six sophomores and four juniors are on the roster).
“When I took over this program three years ago, I wanted to be able to field a JV team, which hadn’t been fielded in quite a few years,” Steffy said. “We have increased our participation numbers every year from 12 to 17 to where we had 28 players to try out this year.
“It shows that our softball program is back to heading in the right direction again.”
Junior catcher Drew Bratcher, who has verbally committed to play at DePauw, is a returning all-state, all-conference and all-county player.
Other returning all-counters are junior pitcher/DP Grace Carr and junior outfielder Helen Eaglin.
Steffy noted that other top returning players are junior Jaylen Hughbanks and sophomore Leighla Hazlett,
Among the top incoming freshmen are Steffy’s daughters Alex and Drew (two-thirds of a set of triplets), Brionna Egold, Chloe Custis, Bree Mahoney-Sutherland, Ava McHugh, Gracie Nees and Macie Bumgardner.
Alex Steffy and Egold are pitchers, in addition to Carr.
“I have either coached or been involved softball-wise with almost all of these girls since they were very young,” he said. “There is a comfort level that we have with each other, an expectation level that we talk about every day. The set of goals we have set for this group is very, very high.”
Steffy expects his team to be the youngest in the conference this season.
“Being the smallest school in this conference and our division always being so tough, we know we have to be ready to play every game,” he said. “We want to use this tough schedule to be ready to go come sectional time.
“One of our team strengths is our versatility,” Steffy added. “Most of these varsity girls have played quite a bit of travel ball through the years, seen a lot of good pitching and been in a lot of pressure situations. We hope to build on that and use that to our advantage.”
Greencastle
Senior pitcher Julia Mundy, who will play at Division II Saginaw Valley State next year, leads the Tiger Cubs of head coach Tabatha Briones. She also hit .410 last year.
Other top returnees include senior third baseman Layna Robinson (.312, one HR, four RBI), junior Mckenzie Woodall (.288, two doubles, one HR) and junior Ivy Wright (.250, six RBI, two 2B).
Other returners are seniors Kenzie Horton and Kaylee Hughes, junior Anna Chavez and sophomores Macy Clark and Brittany Ricketts.
Newcomers to the varsity are sophomore Starrla Torres and freshman Delaney Wright.