Last season was a rough one for the ladies of Cardinal High School on the softball diamond.
Last season was a rough one for the ladies of Cardinal High School on the softball diamond.
As Head Coach Haley Adams grew in building the relationship with her team, youthful inexperience played a huge role.
Unfortunately that inexperience led to many thumpings on the diamond, and when a team gets thumped, games usually end up shorter. That, in turn, does not provide the experience-building mode a team needs to grow.
The Huskies’ 2-14 record last season, including a 0-9 CVC mark, didn’t provide the experiences needed to improve the product. At the same time, Coach Adams has a new crew coming into the program, the third under her leadership, and with some solid additions from the freshman class to supplement the gained experience of upperclassmen, she foresees plenty of improvement coming.
“The experiences we gained last season, even in games that didn’t go the distance because we were getting beaten, gives us a lot to start with this season,” she said recently during a practice session in the Cardinal gymnasium. Recent snows and rains have made it tough to get outside to play.
“Our defense will be a lot stronger this year,” Adams said. “The girls learned a lot last year, too, and even though we are a young team again, we learned how to make adjustments on offense, in particular, that will help this year.
“Hitting is tough, but the girls are learning still to make adjustments to get deeper into counts. If we make our hitting more selective, we will generate more offense, and that will take any pressure off of our pitching and defense. “
With a roster of 17 this season, Adams also will have to make more choices to keep players involved and focused in games.
In the tough Chagrin Valley Conference Valley division, the Huskies will be more competitive, and much of that begins in the circle in the middle of the infield. This season, Cardinal will find a pair of talented freshmen to get things started in Dakota Gillespie and Maggie Grant. Both are right-handers with good credentials coming in from youth programs, and that’s a good place to begin.
Gillespie will move to first base when Grant pitches, while Grant likely will play third base when the former is on the bump.
Another freshman, A’Mauri Littlejohn, will get playing time in the outfield.
After getting their feet wet last season as raw rookies at the varsity level, sophomores Bri Lew, Kayleigh Duncan, Isabella McMurray, Shawna Coleman and Rylie Leichtman will contribute. The first four will get a lot of outfield play, while Leichtman will learn her craft at the infield corners or behind the plate.
Juniors are Morgan Soltis, Hanna Hansen, Kylie Miller, Alaina Rupinski and Casey Koeth. Soltis, Hansen and Koeth will also fit into the outfield, Rupinski will man the up-the-middle defensive positions at second base and shortstop, and Miller will focus at first base.
With only a trio of seniors on the roster in Jasmine Newman, Kelsi Collins and Emily Doolittle, youth will be served for the Huskies under their leadership skills.
Newman and Collins will also patrol the green pastures of the outfield, and Collins will also see time up the middle at second and shortstop.
“We’ve set up a stacked schedule this season,” Adams said. “We are in a very tough league to begin with, and we’ve added some tough non-conference games as well, such as St. John from Ashtabula County. They are always tough, especially for a small school, and basically everybody we play is a good team.
“We’re blessed to have gained so much experience last season, though. We have girls who can play multiple positions on the field, so we will be able to mix things up depending on who we are playing. The skill sets improved dramatically last season, even when we were losing games, and having a pair of good freshmen pitching is going to give us more of an edge to begin with each time out.”
Getting the bottom of the lineup to contribute more on offense will be a big key, too, Adams said, but now the girls know they can get it done.
The learning process continues for Cardinal’s girls softball, but expect a vastly improved team to step out onto the diamonds this season.
