Sports editor
At 0-12, no one on the Marion Warrior softball team will say it has been an easy season. However, head coach Sandy Black thinks her team is better than its record.
“It has been a very tough season. We have battled with sickness and injuries all season,” Black said.
Only four players, Jordan Harper, Brooke Johnson, Tiffany Christensen, and Raelene Allen, have been healthy enough to play all 12 games so far this season.
Alex Cain and Chassidy Carlson, who lead the team in batting average, have missed three games.
Catcher Shelby Percell, who led the team with a .400 batting average last year and is hitting .308 this season, missed a doubleheader against Ellinwood earlier in the season.
In Marion’s closest game thus far, it fell to the Eagles without Percell, 4-3, in 10 innings.
“If we could have a healthy team with no sickness or injuries, a lot of our problems would be solved,” Black said.
Right now though, the Warriors are in a hitting slump, having scored just four runs in its past 43 innings.
A Brooke Johnson three-run triple April 14 at Ellinwood was the team’s only runs until it put up four Friday in the second game against Halstead.
In that same eight-game stretch where the bats struggled, the defense committed 36 errors.
“It seems like we play good defense but then our bats fall apart — if we could only put it all together in the same night,” Black said.
While the season is not young, the Warriors certainly are.
Without a senior on the roster, the Warriors continue to play league opponents with older lineups.
Black said youth can be a double-edged sword.
“It is a good thing to have a young team because that only means I will not be losing any girls next year,” she said. “I just need to push a few of the juniors a little harder to step up and be the leaders.”
She singled out juniors Rogers and Johnson as players who need to have the mentalities of seniors.
While the record is not where Black wants it to be, some players have been showing signs of life at the plate.
Cain is batting .500 during her past two games, Carlson is 4-for-7 during a current three-game hitting streak, and Johnson ended an 0-for-12 slump Friday with a 2-for-3 performance in the second game.
With eight games remaining, the Warriors still have plenty of chances to prove they are better than their record.
The team will play ball again Friday with two home games against Hoisington.