Page 41 - RVO Diamond Roundup March 2017

RIVER VALLEY & OZARK EDITION OF THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE BASEBALL & SOFTBALL REVIEW |
SUNDAY, MARCH 19, 2017
41VV
RUSSELLVILLE LADY CYCLONES
Five seniors ready to lead Lady Cyclones this season
BY DONNA LAMPKIN STEPHENS
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Russellville won the Class 6A state softball championship in 2013, but last year, the Lady Cyclones slipped to 6-20.
But with five seniors among seven returning starters, they look to improve in 2017. “Two things we’ve got to do,” said Harley Sisson, in his 14th season at Russellville. “We’ve got to pitch really well, and we’ve got to score more runs. Our defense is not that bad. Our pitchers have got to do a better job of locating
the ball and being more consistent.
“That’s just going to take some time and reps.
We feel like our pitching core is going to be OK when we get some experience behind us.”
The returning starters are led by seniors Taylor Kilgore at first base, Rachel Russell at shortstop, Katelyn Harrison in the infield (probably third base and shortstop), Hannah Rickman at catcher and Christa Poirier in center field. Other return- ing starters are juniors pitcher Meredith Duffield and left fielder Sierra Porter.
Sisson said senior Brianna Basinger will work in the outfield this spring. Other newcomers ex- pected to contribute include junior pitcher/first baseman Katlin Betancur, sophomore second baseman Emily Hipps and freshman pitcher/ infielder Dayven Pledger.
“They’ve worked real hard,” Sisson said of his Lady Cyclones. “We just need to play a lot of games to get reps and see what we can do. In our opener, we played Dardanelle pretty good. We got beat 5-1, but we were ahead 1-0 through the [top of the] fifth, so that’s kind of encouraging.”
Three junior foreign-exchange students are on the Lady Cyclones roster: Matie Jeske from Germany, Adela Castro from Spain and Cheyenne de Wit from the Netherlands. Sisson said Jeske
Conference: 6A South
Coach: Harley Sisson
Assistant coaches: Mickey Duvall,
Andrea Kendrick, Kacie Ballard and
Victoria Teague
2016 record: 6-20
Mascot: Lady Cyclones
Returning starters: Taylor Kilgore,
Rachel Russell, Katelyn Harrison, Hannah Rickman, Christa Poirier, Meredith Duffield and Sierra Porter
WILLIAM HARVEY/RIVER VALLEY & OZARK EDITION
Russellville freshman pitcher Dayven Pledger fires one during practice.
will likely be the team’s courtesy runner. Castro should see some action as a pinch hitter.
“They have never played before, but they are
RUSSELLVILLE SOFTBALL continued on 42VV RUSSELLVILLE SOFTBALL
MARCH 28 ........................ SILOAM SPRINGS* MARCH 30 ...............................FARMINGTON* MARCH 31-APRIL 1 .... @VAN BUREN TOURNEY APRIL 4 ................................ @GREENWOOD* APRIL 6 ................................@CLARKSVILLE* APRIL 7 ...................................... MORRILTON APRIL 11 ..............................................ALMA
APRIL 13 .................................... HARRISON* APRIL 14 ...................................DARDANELLE APRIL 17 ......................................... CONWAY APRIL 21 ........................@SILOAM SPRINGS* APRIL 25 .............................. @FARMINGTON* APRIL 27 .................................GREENWOOD*
*DENOTES CONFERENCE GAMES