Softball Looks to Rebound After Tough Weekend

3/22/2016 9:24:00 AM

By: LC Sports Information

After begin swept by Belhaven and in the process losing their first series of the season the Lady Wildcats softball team are wasting no time in putting that behind them. They play a three game home conference series against LeTourneau (10-13, 8-10) on Tuesday and Wednesday, with first pitch at 6pm Tuesday night and then a double header on Wednesday starting at 4pm (second game at 6pm).

Although the Lady Wildcats lost the three games, Coach Bankston was still pleased with the way the team performed defensively. "I thought we played really, really good defense at Belhaven, not to take anything away from them, they are a well rounded, mature team and did a great job in all three phases of the game. We matched them hit for hit in game 2 and 3 and had opportunities to win the game, the balls that we hit just didn't fall our way."

Sometimes in baseball and softball you can do everything right and the ball goes right to the defender, which certainly was the case against Belhaven. "We left 13 on base in that 3rd game, and anytime you do that you're probably going to be on the short end of the stick. I was extremely proud of the way our kids fought through the games, our days going to come."

The three game series against LeTourneau here in Pineville gives the Lady Wildcats a quick chance to move on to the next game and continue to battle for a spot in the ASC conference tournament. Right now LC is sitting in the number 3 spot behind Texas-Tyler (20-2, 12-0) and ETBU (18-4, 11-1), but there are multiple team still in the running for a spot in the tournament and every game, even with a month left in the season, is still very important. Bankston said, "LeTourneau is like any other team in our conference in that they've got the mindset that their competing for the conference championship, and if you look at the records right now, its pretty much a toss up."

With the unfortunate placement of hit right at Belhaven defenders last week Coach Bankston is continuing to encourage his hitter to stay in the same mindset they've had all year and to not over analyze what they are doing at the plare. As Yogi Berra once said "Baseball, [or softball] is 90% mental, and the other half is physical." Coach Bankston is telling the team to, "get up there and see the ball and put the bat on it."

The Lady Wildcats will again look to Sophomore's Mattie Stine offensively and Savannah Settle in the circle to set the tone for the series. Settle is coming off a week were she went 1-3 pitching even though she pitched very well the whole week. Bankston said about Settle, "Savannah really pitched well, they had some really good hitters in their lineup and they know how to hit the ball well. They [Belhaven] only got 2 really really good hits on her and those just happen to be home runs and that's how they scored the 4 runs."

Stine is coming off a Belhaven series that saw her go 4 for 9 with a couple of single and a clutch 2-run homerun in the seventh inning of game two. She leads the team in multiple offensive categories, including BA (.426), slugging (.607), OBP (.521), hits (26), extra base hits (8), total bases (37, and walks (10).

Game 1 of the three game series is Tuesday night at Coca-Cola Wildcat Field at Louisiana College with first pitch at 6pm. The double header on Wednesday will begin with Game 2 of the series at 4pm and the finale at 6pm.

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