The Oran High School girls softball team is scheduled to open it's season at 4:30 on Monday at Scott City. The Eagles are looking to improve on last year's 6-16 rebuilding campaign.
Last year was actually a year and a half ago. The last time the girls took the field was on October 9, 2014 as Oran switched from fall softball to spring softball. The team lost 3 seniors from that squad, two of which had an opportunity to play at the next level.
During an interview with assistant coach Susan Dirnberger, when asked about losing the leadership of those key players, she told the blog, "I see Senior Tatum May stepping up and being a leader on the field. Being a senior she is wanting to go out with a bang. Her sophomore year the team was one step away from the final four and believe me she is going to give it all she has. Tatum is the leader also in that she is one of the three pitchers on the team."
Hannah Scherer will be the only other senior on the team. She is playing after a two year hiatus. She is also one of the three pitchers Dirnberger mentioned. The third is sophomore Kenzie Graviett.
The top two returning hitters from that squad are May and junior Brianna Stuase.
May hit for .267 with 7 RBI and the teams lone home run. Stuase had a .268 average and 6 RBI.
In the pitching circle, May appeared in 13 games. She was 1-5 with a 6.13 ERA. She struck out 40 and walked 28 in 40 innings of work. Graviett was 2-1. She appeared in 8 games and had an ERA of 8.11. She struck out 9 while walking 8 in 14 2/3 innings.
This year the Eagles will have a 15 player roster, 7 of those are new. Besides Scherer, sophomore Sydney Kern will make her debut as well as a talented freshman class consisting of Leah Cauble, Jessie Long, Claire Ramsey, Madison Ramsey and Kaitlyn Streeter.
Oran will have 2 seniors, 2 juniors, 6 sophomores and 5 freshman.
When asked about working in all the new players into the Eagle practice routine, Dirnberger said, "At the beginning it was slow going, considering 10 of our players had just came off a very successful basketball season. Practices have been a chance to look at who is best suited for each position. The underclassmen have stepped up and shown they will contribute to this team."
As mentioned, Oran has switched back to the spring season for softball after several years playing fall ball. Dirnberger contrasted the prep for the different times of the year, "Spring softball began with open gyms in January. Compared to the fall - spring softball is more of a challenge to get the athletes back into the mode of playing because in the fall, most are just coming from playing summer ball and are ready and more conditioned."
Dirnberger had this to say about the upcoming season, "I believe we have great potential if the girls give it their all each game. Our goals would be to make it to the final four but we will get there one game at a time with the team-work we have seen."
For a printable copy of the roster, click HERE
For a printable copy of the schedule, click HERE
One update not on this copy: The game on April 1st against Delta has been cancelled because neither Advance nor Delta had enough players to field a team. They will be co-oping and playing out of Advance.
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