The Press-Dispatch
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D-10 Spring Sports Preview Wednesday, April 4, 2018 The Press-Dispatch TUESDAY-FRIDAY 9-6 • SATURDAY 9-4 "Your complete hunting outfitters" 812-482-GUNS 4 8 6 7 317 Southgate Center, Jasper AMS ® Bowfishing Reels & Kits Montana Decoys ® Miss Purr-Fect & Spring Fling Cajun ® Bowfishing Kits Turkey Calls by Primos ® , Duel ® Quaker Boy ® Fishing Arrows by Cajun ® & Muzzy ® DON'T FORGET Camo, Gloves & Facemasks Genx ® Bowfishing Kits Turkey Fans ® Fanatic & Fanatic XL Muzzy ® Addict Bowfishing Kit Blinds by Browning ® , Ameristep ® , Primos ® & Barronett ® Fishing GAFF Carlson' s ® Longbeard XL Choke Tubes Spring HUNTING & BOWFISHING GET READY FOR BOWFISHING TURKEY SEASON ing in 14. "It would be easy to say, yes, we expect that and more," Weisman said of Sorgius, who has signed a national letter of intent to continue playing softball at Lindsey Wilson College. "But, at the same time, I'd rather her go out and be kind of a free, easy spir- it about it, and enjoy it, in- stead of putting pressure on her." "But I think if you put her back against the wall, that's when she's at her best, be- cause the more you push her, the more determined she gets," Weisman added. "And that's probably when the best in her comes out, because she stays focused." Weisman said that Sor- gius will split varsity pitch- ing duties with Padgett, who pitched in three varsi- ty games last season, hurl- ing four scoreless innings while allowing two hits, walking one and striking out three. "She wants the ball all the time, but I've already told her she won't pitch ev- ery game," Weisman said of Sorgius. "She'll probably pitch the important games, but, as of next year, Peyton will no longer be here, and we need to get somebody else in mind to take over her position. And she was fine with that." "Right behind that, she asks, 'Well, if I'm not pitch- ing, can I play someplace else? '" Weisman said with a laugh. "I said, 'As long as your bat is hot, we'll have to find you a place to get in the game.'" Sorguis, Weisman said, would likely play on the in- field, at second base, as well as in the outfield when she's not pitching. "So there's other ave- nues for Peyton to be in the game, whenever she isn't pitching for us in a game," Weisman said. Weisman said that Powell will also likely see some ac- tion this season as a pitcher at the varsity level. Lexi Halbrader, who bat- ted .284 with 19 hits – in- cluding two doubles, one triple and one home run – in 67 at-bats while driving in 12 runs, returns at catcher for the second straight year. She will be backed up this season by Dawson and Johnson, as well as possibly Stafford and Traylor. "With Aubrie and Addie, we're going to try to get them some games behind the plate, to get them some experience back there, be- cause one of them will have to take over next year," Weisman said. "So, with that in mind, if Lexi is hit- ting the ball, we're going to find her another place. and, right now, we've been try- ing Lexi at third base." Stone, who batted .329 with 24 hits – including four doubles, three triples and one home run – while scoring 17 runs and driv- ing in 16 last season, will re- place Scott at shortstop af- ter playing each of the last two seasons at second base. "She's got a good bat, and she's got a good arm," Weis- man said of Stone, who will be backed up by sophomore Karsyn Pipes. "She's real- ly deceiving. She can cover more ground than what you would think. She's a leader, one that will speak out and say, 'Hey, let's pick it up,' and the girls will appreci- ate that." "A lot of our seniors are that way," Weisman added. "I mean, they're people that people look up to, as far as teammates and all that." Barnes, who batted .275 with 19 hits – including six doubles and one home run – while scoring 13 runs and driving in 10, returns at third base for the fourth straight season. "I don't see her going anywhere but third," Weis- man said. "She's kind of like a cornerstone over there. She knows what's going on." Barnes, Weisman noted, started off the season with a bang, belting three hits – including two doubles – and driving in three runs in a 16 -0 victory over Barr- Reeve on Thursday, March 22. "She came out this year ready to go, and has pound- ed the ball," Weisman said. "She is really, really sting- ing the ball." In addition to Lexi Hal- brader, Emily Carnahan and Johnson may also see action at third base this sea- son, Weisman said. Shelbi Pipes returns in centerfield. A left-handed batter, she hit .231 last sea- son with 12 hits in 52 at-bats while scoring 17 runs and driving in four. "She's a good fielder," Weisman said. "She can cover the ground. I know Shelbi wants to hit the ball better than she has. She has really worked at it." Sisk and Morgan will al- so see action in centerfield, Weisman said. Vaughn, who started in right field last year as a freshman, will see action in the outfield, in either right or center field, according to Weisman. Vaughn, a left-handed hitter, batted .288 with 17 hits – including one double – in 59 at-bats while scoring 10 runs and driving in 14. "She knows the game, studies the game," Weis- man said. "We need to get her going." Also in the mix in right field are Hickey – who is al- so being worked in at sec- ond and third base – as well as Stafford and War- ner, who also may see ac- tion at second base. Montgomery, another left- handed hitter who saw play- ing time in left field and as a pinch-runner last season, begins her senior year as the starter at that position. "She's probably tickled," Weisman said. "Last year, she played a lot on the de- fensive part of it, and we'd DH for her. We've really stressed to her that we need her in the outfield, but we need her bat, too. We don't want to DH somebody for her this season." During the season-open- ing win over Barr-Reeve, Montgomery, batting sec- ond in the line-up behind Stone, went 1-for-2 and walked twice, scoring once and driving in one. "She was probably more shocked about batting sec- ond in the first game than probably anybody was, be- cause she goes from not hardly hitting and playing defense to batting second in the line-up. We're putting a little pressure on her, to see how she's going to do, how well she's going to han- dle it." "She's a good bunter, which we need, because if we bat Audra first, and her percentages of getting on is going up, then we need somebody that's going to get her to second," Weis- man added. "That paid off for us the first game." Englert, Feldpausch and Traylor, Weisman noted, are also vying for playing time in left field. With Stone moving to shortstop, Emily Carnah- an will take over her for- mer position at second base, Weisman said. "We tried Traylor there, we tried Powell there, and we even had Hickey there at one time, but whenever it all worked out, we said, no, Emily would probably be the best fit," Weisman said. "And Emily has come in and she's done a great job." Barrett, meanwhile, will also see action for the La- dy Chargers this season in a variety of roles. "She's maybe the quick- est girl we've got on the team, and she loves to play," Weisman said. "Last year, I think we played her at sec- ond base in JV. We've tried her in the outfield this year. She's one of those girls who says, 'Hey, Coach, just put me anywhere. I'll try any- thing.'" "A lot of times, when we're having batting prac- tice, she'll be there on the infield at shortstop, or wherever, taking ground balls," Weisman said. "I'll say, 'What do you think? ' And she'll go, 'Gotta learn sometime.'" With so many players ex- pected to see action on the varsity level this season, Weisman acknowledged that it would be a challenge – albeit, a pleasant one – to work them all in. "We've got a lot of pieces to the puzzle this year that we haven't had for a while, that we can interchange and make us a lot stronger, and they're going to get gobs of experience," Weis- man said. "It wouldn't be fair for us, as coaches, to say, 'okay, we're going to ride the se- niors out,' and then, 'girls, we're going to take it on the chin next year,' because we don't have to," Weisman add- ed. "Every position that we've got, we've got somebody that's maybe not that caliber, but we've got to get them a chance to get the experience and get their feet wet." Pike Central has seen each of its last two seasons end with 3-0 losses to Jas- per – in the sectional cham- pionship game played at Pike Central in 2016 and in the first round of the sec- tional played at Jasper in 2017 – which, Weisman be- lieves, will motivate this year's team. "I think it did leave a bad taste, because, the first year, it was here at our place, and they real- ized that we had opportu- nities," Weisman said. "We had girls in scoring position – we just couldn't get the hit. Then, last year, we were up there at their place, the same thing – we had girls in scoring position, but we couldn't get the hit." Weisman also said that he considered the Lady Chargers to be a contend- er for the PAC title. "When you look at it on paper, I think, yeah, we should be looked at pret- ty heavily, but, at the same time, I think Heritage Hills has quite a bit back. I think with the way Tara (Comp- ton) has her program down at South Spencer, and (Gib- son Southern head coach Gary) May over there, it'll be who shows up. It could be the difference of wheth- er you're home or away. But it'll be interesting. And you can't rule out Gordon Wood at Tecumseh." Pike Central, which was scheduled to play at North Daviess on Tuesday, April 3, will travel to Loogootee on Thursday, April 5, and to Sullivan on Saturday, April 7. "We're ready to get out- side," Weisman said. "We're ready to get out here and re- ally get the dust rolling and get dirty and play some softball and really get into it," Weisman said. "I hope we're on a slow progression to peak out about the last of May." "I told them, 'I'm looking at bigger and better things than we had last year,'" Weisman added. "Not to say that last year was not good. But when you look back at games, the ones that we lost, we were in. That's where we've got to go and say, 'Okay, we're geared up for an hour and 15, an hour and a half, of nothing but just devoted concentration and give it the Pike Central rah-rah, that we're going to go in there and give every- thing we can, and if they're better than us, then they're better than us." SOLID Continued from page D-3 TENNIS Continued from page D-8 in the summer time," Beck continued. "So I'm definite- ly feeling a whole lot better than I did at the end of the season last year, with that core group coming back, and we have decent num- bers. So I'm just pretty opti- mistic that we should be able to compete on most nights, and cautiously optimistic that we can string together some wins this year as well." Beck said that he was pleased that the middle school girls' tennis pro- gram – which had been dor- mant the last two years after it was dropped as a school- sponsored sport – has been revived, with Bob Collins serving as head coach. "He has somewhere be- tween 15 and 17 kids, and he's excited," Beck said. "He's kind of learning as we're going, but he's enjoy- ing it. We're fortunate to get that back up and running. It's definitely a step in the right direction." "We're kind of back where we need to be, I guess, sta- tus-wise, which is a big plus," Beck added. Beck described himself as "curious" about how his team will do this season. "Because we have pre- pared," Beck explained. "I'm just kind of excited to get things going just to see how well our labors pay off. Hopefully, within a week or so, we can kind of get that lineup set. It may take some tinkering. I usually don't do a whole lot of tinkering, but I can see probably having to do some tinkering this year." Pike Central opened its season at home against Te- cumseh on Monday, April 2, and against Vincennes Lincoln on Tuesday, April 3. The Lady Chargers will host Vincennes Lincoln on Thursday, April 5, before playing in the Loogootee Invitational on Saturday, April 7. We're not afraid to shed some light on the truth. 812-354-8500 SUBSCRIBE TODAY! 350 W. Main, Petersburg • Next to Double J Collision Call for Carry-Out or Faster Service! ( 812 ) 354-2606 Open: Tuesday-Saturday 5-9 PM A FAN FAVORITE Joe Mama's Pizza Dine In or Carry Out! Pizza • Sandwiches • Salads • Carry-Out