Boyd, WCHS face off on softball field

By DALE STUBBLEFIELD / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

Boyd’s Courtney Hard takes a cut at a pitch during Thursday afternoon’s scrimmage against the Warren County High School junior varsity. (Dale Stubblefield photo)

The Lady Pioneer softball team invited their neighbors from Boyd for a preseason scrimmage Thursday afternoon, with Warren County placing its junior varsity team on the field against the Lady Broncos.

Lady Pioneer coach David Upton and Lady Bronco coach Mike Steakley were pleased with the results of the scrimmage, but both agreed they had plenty of work to do before the season starts.

“This was our first scrimmage of the year, and it gave us a chance to see what areas we need to work on the most,” Steakley said. “Pitching right now is going to be our weakness. We lost our pitcher last year and our two pitchers this year are young and don’t have a lot of experience.

“Megan Lewis and Courtney Hard have been working hard, and have improved very much. But both girls have little time on the mound against batters and it’s going to take a while before they build up some confidence.

“Tonight Courtney gave up several walks and it took a little time to get her settled down. We have been hard at work at hitting and tonight we finally got a couple of hits towards the end of the game. We just have to take small steps and work to improve before each game.”

The Lady Pioneers picked up five hits and gave up three as Warren County posted 11 runs on the board to Boyd’s one. Coach Upton was pleased with the way his junior varsity performed, but still wants to see his team be more aggressive at the plate.

“This was a good little test for us and hopefully we can fix our mistakes,” said coach Upton. ” We got our three relief pitchers — Brittany Bowdoin, LeAnn Smith and Ashley McBee — some work and they all came in and did a good job.

“We had a couple of mental mistakes at the plate and in the field, but overall I was very pleased with the girls’ progress. A scrimmage like this is a good way for both teams to break the ice and find out what you need to be working on.”