South looking to play consistent, fundamental softball

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WEST ALEXANDRIA — Twin Valley South had a young roster last year – losing only two members of their team to graduation.

Unfortunately, those two players were Ashley Robertson – the team’s center fielder – and Ali Robertson – their number one pitcher.

They do return Lacey Emrick, the team’s catcher who was second team All-CCC last season, as well as shortstop Sarah Bingham.

“Sarah features excellent range in the field and a naturally perfect swing at the plate. Lacey exhibits great blocking and throwing ability behind the plate and a mind to call a good ball game as well,” said new head coach Nicholas Randall.

Randall added that other key contributors will Abby Bingham who has “excellent plate vision” and sophomore Kelsie Shafer who brings in “an abundance of hitting power.”

The Panthers main priority this season is to play solid, smart softball.

“Too many spectators are quick to judge a team based off of wins and losses. Those are outdated metrics that are easily skewed. A team can play as hard as they possibly can and still lose a game 2-1, so does that make them a bad team? Not at all,” said Randall. “Winning is sometimes a by-product of fundamental softball. Therefore, if we aim to play ball in such a manner, we stand to possibly win quite a few games.”

Also on South’s roster are Allyson Brown, Shaylee Spurlock, Presley Holthaus, Brenna Purvis, Shelby Denlinger, Jayla Taylor, Hailee Bright, Madison Johnson, Abby Robertson, Evelyn Woodgeard, and Paige Dickerson.

“We take a whole system approach to playing softball. The whole of the team is greater than the sum of its parts. We are looking to optimize our entire system developing and implementing functionally appropriate processes. In short, good processes create good results,” said Randall.

The Panthers (2-0) opened their season with a double-header against Stivers on Saturday, March 26, winning both games. They started CCC play at Arcanum on Tuesday, March 29 and will host Bradford on Thursday, March 31 starting at 5 p.m.

Bingham
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/41/2016/03/web1_Bingham_Sara.jpgBingham

Emrick
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/41/2016/03/web1_Emrick_Lacey.jpgEmrick

By Jeremy Erskine

[email protected]

Reach Jeremy Erskine at 937-683-4061 or on Twitter @jerskine_RH.

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