Injuries, youth hurt softball team

by Eric Keppeler
Grand Island Dispatch, June 16, 2006

The 2006 softball season didn’t turn out to be quite as good as the Grand Island Vikings had hoped.

Hamstrung by a couple of key injuries and without the depth of experience to survive them, the Vikes struggled through a 3-16 campaign. With just four seniors, they finished 1-13 in the Niagara Frontier League, tied for sixth place with Lew-Port. They then had their season ended by Kenmore East in the Section VI Class A pre-quarterfinals when the Bulldogs threw a perfect game at them in an 8-0 setback.

“I think it was our inexperience as a team,” coach Marlene Winkler said. “We weren’t used to the speed of the pitching. Plus, the NFL is a very competitive league. Now we’ve had a year to see it, and we’ll grow from that.”

The team took an early hit when freshman Emily Thompson, who had been emerging as the staff ace, went down with an injury that forced her to miss most of the remainder of the season.

Sophomore Leah Hinaman stepped in and pitched well enough in relief, earning third team Niagara Frontier League honors. But she got precious little run support from a team that batted a collective .177.

“When Emily went down, that really hurt us,” Winkler said. “She was able to come back, but never all the way back. Leah pitched a lot of games and she did a good job. She’s consistent, but not overpowering, and the team really didn’t play good defense behind her. That, and not being able to produce offensively was just devastating to us.”

Sophomore third baseman Shari Geblein wound up as the team’s leading hitter with a .298 average, including four doubles and three triples. Senior outfielder Krista Moran hit .242 and led the team with 10 RBI. Second baseman Jordan Dudish, only an eighth grader, led the Vikings in stolen bases with three.

The good news is that most of the players will be back next year. Winkler is losing her starting outfield in Charlotte Booth, Colleen George and Moran, as well as pitcher Cassie Carlson.

Everyone else is expected back, a year older and a year wiser.

Winkler is also looking forward to the addition of Kaileen Schumacher, who pitched the junior varsity squad to a 9-4 record this year as a freshman. After this season, she knows how important depth is – plus, she figures the competition will make everybody better.

But the biggest improvement should be the experience gained this season at the varsity level against players who were older and stronger.

“In most of the games, we had a one-inning meltdown,” Winkler said. “If you take away that one inning, most of our games would have been very close. But because of our youth, we got flustered and we didn’t know how to get out of that big inning. We need to avoid that, and I think the experience will really help our composure. The girls know that they’re better than their record showed.”