The time is now for the Kentridge High fastpitch team.<\/p>\n
The Chargers enter the season with a senior-dominated bunch plenty capable of making some noise in the wide open South Puget Sound League North Division.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am definitely looking for us to move up in the rankings this year,\u201d said coach Julie Simonson.<\/p>\n
Of course, if the Chargers, who finished 7-9 in league last year and fell a single win out of the playoff mix, are going to return to elite status, they\u2019ll need to make one big correction from last spring. That correction will be in reversing their fortunes in close games.<\/p>\n
More than any team in the North last spring, the Chargers were devastated by 1, 2 and 3-run losses. In fact, eight of Kentridge\u2019s nine league losses came by three or fewer runs. Three of those were by just one run. Had the Chargers scratched out a couple more wins, they no doubt would have advanced.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was frustrating losing to the top teams in the league by such a small margin, and then missing the playoffs by one game,\u201d said pitcher\/shortstop Kelli Suguro. \u201cIt was very tough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed. The margin between first-place Kentwood and sixth-place Kentridge wasn\u2019t a wide one last spring. In fact, gave the Conquerors and Auburn Riverside \u2013 the only teams in the North to advance to state last year \u2013 hefty challenges last year, but were unable to escape with anything to show for it.<\/p>\n
Things will change this spring, Simonson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to get ahead of myself,\u201d Simonson said. \u201cBut I have the confidence in my girls.\u201d<\/p>\n
And with good reason. Kentridge returns more talent to the diamond this spring than most of its SPSL North foes. Suguro is a strong part of that foundation. A first-team All-SPSL North utility player last spring, there may not be a better pitcher in the league. Suguro brings an assortment of pitches and can changes her velocity like a veteran. But the Chargers are hardly a one-and-done team as Suguro will have plenty on her side, including seniors Danielle Orvella (pitcher\/infielder), Natalie Spadafora (outfielder\/catcher), and Nicole Barger (third base) among others.<\/p>\n
Orvella was among the league leaders last year in stolen bases (4) while Barger was among the elite in runs scored (6).<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like this could be Kentridge\u2019s best year since I have been here,\u201d said Suguro, who ranked third in the league last spring with a .513 batting average. \u201cWe didn\u2019t lose too many people. A lot of other teams lost their players, and were still pretty strong.\u201d<\/p>\n
The key, however, likely revolves in the one-two punch of Suguro and Orvella and the circle and supplying enough clutch hits to erase memories of losing tight games a year ago. If the Chargers can do that, then there\u2019s no reason this bunch shouldn\u2019t challenge for their first league championship since 2002.<\/p>\n
Kentridge took steps toward a strong beginning last week, when it handled Todd Beamer and Federal Way in succession, 7-3 and 7-0 respectively.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were in every single game we played last year,\u201d Simonson said. \u201cIt was either we lost by 1, 2 or 3 runs or we lost by 1, 2, or 3 runs. Now we have one more year of confidence and knowing that we\u2019ve played together for a year, that\u2019s huge.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The time is now for the Kentridge High fastpitch team.
\nThe Chargers enter the season with a senior-dominated bunch plenty capable of making some noise in the wide open South Puget Sound League North Division.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":9260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-9259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9259"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9259"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}