Softball: Then and Now

The Canyon Lake Softball team has not had a lot of momentum in the past few years. The team is one of the few team sports without a Junior Varsity team, which does not give the athletes the opportunity to play teams in the same age bracket.

The Junior Varsity Football team finished the season undefeated, but few would argue that the team would of been undefeated playing varsity teams this past season. The Hawks have played seven games going into this weeks Tuesday night game at the Hawks diamond.

Take note that this season the offensive and defensive numbers will be skewed based on the pitcher’s circle being moved back three feet to match the same distance the teams in the college ranks play.

This one item will put question marks on many of the teams as this season gets underway. With that being said, then you can also see how this years version of the Hawks might have some potential for gaining some of that momentum we alluded to earlier in this column.

Looking at the comparisons, the 2010 team is averaging more runs and with the pitching circle being closer you can deduce that having the same average number of runs would also be a positive compared to the previous years.

Momentum will not always show up on the scoreboard, especially early in the season as the Lady Hawks continue to search for the right place that will accentuate the strengths of the players.

“Yes, we played some tough teams,” Head Coach John Gallagher said. “Although, we were scheduled to play Austin Travis in our last game and we had our schedule changed to play Poth who is very good. We had already decided to play our newer/inexperienced players against Austin Travis after watching them play. We had already played most starters against El Paso Riverside and Vandergrift so it wasn’t much of a game against Poth but we say what we can be like in them.”

Coach Gallagher continued, “These games helped us gel and gave us a look at who might help us by  position down the road. Everyone was upbeat and knows why we played the tournament, to get  everyone playing time and to evaluate our talent.”

The Softball team has a lot of games to play before district, but the games for district will be her before the team realizes it. So evaluation period for the coaches is paramount during this time of the season.

“I think we are ahead of last year although we are trying to fill a couple of key voids at both corners,” Coach Gallagher finished. “We are just trying to get better every day and put the most consistent knowledgeable people where they can help us the most. We have three tough home games coming up but that’s what we need to see, win or lose.”