Baseball & Softball Looks for Bats and Parka’s as Season Approaches
Pitcher Tyler Pauly with hopes of starting where he left off after a shortened year.
rr[Photo Credit: Mark Robinson / MJR]
Softball & Baseball will be delayed in their development for their season as players will need to shovel snow before having a chance to get their much needed reps in for the start of the season.
Let’s Go Hawks and Hit’em Hard!!
Softball would have started this Tuesday against Austin Westlake…the game might still be played, but common sense might throw the start of season commencing in Navarro on Thursday.
“We are going to try and get as much indoor practice in as possible,” Head Coach Hayley Galloway said. “Whether it is in the gym or the new indoor cage given to the baseball/softball teams by the booster club.”
Coach Galloway continued, “We are constantly checking weather and road conditions, while we need to get work in before our first games this week (hopefully), the safety of our athletes comes first.”
Canyon Lake as was mentioned had the Hawk Booster Club donate an indoor hitting area for situations just like this.
“We have said from the start,” Coach Galloway closed. “The name of the game this year is flexibility, and this is no different.”
This has certainly been a year that no one will easily forget as Covid and a once in a lifetime winter storm has certainly helped give this season some special flavoring.
CL Softball was able to squeeze 3 scrimmages in before below freezing weather made an entrance last week-end.
Pitching will still be a wait and see situation for this year’s team after loosing Pitcher Maddy Puente from their circle on graduation day.
Go Hawks!!
A new Pitching Coach, Elizabeth Carter, will have her hands full this season as that could be the main goal before district. Having pitching come of age while working on a solid line-up in scoring runs.
A simple game plan that is much easier to say than see how that part of the game plays out.
For this year’s Baseball crew is a different scenario with an abundance of pitching even after loosing two Seniors (Matt Anderson & Cale Claycomb) from last year’s solid pitching coral.
A move-in with Sophomore Griffen Williams and two players that got experience with last year’s varsity (Hunter Anderson & Hayden Baker) as freshman. Those two will certainly be in the mix for playing time.
Head Coach Victor Escamilla commented after being asked what the weather will cause the team to do, “It’s the same for all our competitors. We are fortunate to have an indoor hitting facility, compliments of our CL Athletic Booster Club. Nothing takes the place of a regular practice but we are better off dealing with this weather today than we were last year.”
Let’s Go Hawks!!
“We are unofficially looking at getting outdoors on Friday against Lockhart. We will scrimmage Burnet on Saturday and have our opener on the road in Gonzales on Monday,” Coach Escamilla stated.
So, this has become an endorsement for the CL Athletic Booster Club as timing is everything as that thinking for having an indoor hitting area was probably thought as being helpful for rainy days.
Now the Canyon Lake area has had several hours of below freezing temperatures has given a Nostradamus aura for those in charge with the Boosters.
Based on Coach Escamilla’s schedule, the only scrimmage scrubbed would be last week-end’s contest with Lampasas. That certainly would have been a good measuring stick for this year’s team after suffering their only loss to that Badger team.
With a wealth of players (around 60) the Hawks have formed a Green and Gold team in order to have players having a chance to get game action instead of sitting on a bench waiting for a chance of showing what the coaches might be missing without given a chance.
These are good problems to have as the Varsity & Junior Varsity has yet to lose a scrimmage (unofficially) and look to continue that march for getting better as the regular season starts in a week.
Get your Parka on Stay Warm and Go Hawks!!
