Page 24 - RVO Diamond Roundup March 2017

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SUNDAY, MARCH 19, 2017 | RIVER VALLEY & OZARK EDITION OF THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE BASEBALL & SOFTBALL REVIEW
‘SHE’S A SOLDIER’
Vilonia third baseman overcomes injuries, pressure
BY DONNA LAMPKIN STEPHENS
Photos by William Harvey Vilonia’s Kristen Wade wasn’t
about to let anything — even a torn meniscus — keep her from playing in the Class
5A softball state-championship game last year.
“I didn’t realize it until after we were done [for the season], but in
the semifinals against De Queen, she dove and back-handed a ball and
threw it down the line and tore her meniscus,” Lady Eagles coach Kevin
Sullivan said. “She finished the game and played in the final, but
she never showed a hint of pain. She sure wasn’t going to let me know.” Her efforts were rewarded when the Lady Eagles knocked off Green-
brier in eight innings, 5-4, to win their second straight state title. Now Wade enters her senior season as the River Valley & Ozark Edition Softball Player to Watch.
“She’s that kind of kid,” Sullivan said. “She wasn’t going to let me know she
was hurting, and she sure wasn’t going to miss the state-championship game.”
As a sophomore, Wade hyperextended an elbow late in the season and was lim- ited to pinch hitting for the postseason. She came through with a big double against Paragould in the final.
“She’s a soldier,” Sullivan said. “She works hard in the weight room and comes out and does the little things right.”
Wade, a 5-4 senior third baseman, has played on Vilonia High School teams that have gone 79-18. All three of those seasons ended in the state-championship game.
As a freshman in 2014, she helped the Lady Eagles to a runner-up finish to White Hall, batting .301 with nine doubles and 19 runs scored.
As a sophomore in ’15, she hit .430 with seven doubles, four triples and 33 runs scored as Vilonia finished 28-4 with a state-championship win over Paragould.
As a junior in ’16, Wade batted .369 with eight doubles, four triples and 34 runs scored.
For her career, she has batted .366 with 24 doubles, eight triples and 86 runs scored. She’s been hit by 17 pitches.
“She is one of the best kids, just as a person, that I’ve ever coached,” Sullivan said of Wade. “She’s ‘yes sir,’ ‘no sir’, the first one here and the last one to leave. She’s a very dependable kid.”
Wade, 17, grew up in Vilonia and started playing softball at about age 4. She tried out for the high school squad as an eighth-grader.
“She almost didn’t make the team,” Sullivan said. “[Former VHS coach Calvin Robinette] put her on the developmental squad, but the other coaches and I lobbied for her. He took the Conway [High School] job, and I got this one and moved her up to the high school team, and she ended up starting all 31 games as a freshman at third base.”
After her older sister, Whitney, grad- uated, Kristen Wade replaced her at third. Whitney Wade is now playing for Central Baptist College in Conway.
Vilonia graduated six senior starters off last year’s squad, so Kristen Wade and her classmates will take their turn at the helm of the program in 2017.
“I’m pretty excited to see how we’ll handle it,” she said. “There’s been a lot
of talk about how we might be down, but we’ve worked really hard and worked together as a team.
“All the seniors are used to is being in the state championship. That’s all we’ve experienced. It’ll be a tough chal- lenge, but I think if we work together, we’ll be able to handle it well.”
Wade sports a 3.75 grade-point average and said she is interested in pursuing something in the medical field. She has committed to play softball next year for Crowder College in Neosho, Missouri.
“I think it’s a good place for me,” she said. “I feel like I fit in there. That keeps the door open for more opportunities to come.”
Wade, who attends New Life Church in Conway and is a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, said Sullivan had been an important role model for her.
“He’s not only a great coach, but
he’s taught me so much about softball and shown me how to care about my teammates,” she said. “He is such a great, godly example every day who just shares his faith and helps me to come into practice with an open mind and to use my gifts from God to glorify him.” And while the string of success brings some pressure, Wade is able to keep things in perspective.
“Everyone is rooting for us and want- ing us to go back to the state final, obvi- ously, and that’s our goal,” she said. “But as long as we enjoy the process and enjoy playing with each other, that’s what we want. We’re excited to see what all we can do and to spend time with each other.”
Other up-and-coming players in the River Valley & Ozark Edition coverage area
JAYLEE ENGELKES
GREENBRIER LADY PANTHERS
• .302 BA with 4 HRs and 29 RBIs, 16-8 pitching, 1.86 ERA
SAVANA RHINEHART
DARDANELLE SAND LIZARDS
• .532 BA, 9 doubles, 2 HRs, 13 RBIs, 22 SBs
BAILEY WRIGHT
WONDERVIEW DAREDEVILS
• .528 BA, 58 runs scored,
20-5 pitching, 145 K’s, 2.03 ERA
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