Friday, February 15, 2008
The Jayhawk softball team started the season strong with a tournament victory at Central Florida. The Jayhawks won five games and lost only one.
Sophomore pitcher Sarah Vertelka won three games and didn’t give up a run in the tournament. Coach Tracy Bunge said she was very pleased to see the pitching staff perform so well.
“Of all things through the weekend, I was most pleasantly surprised with our pitching staff,” Bunge said.
Freshman second baseman/shortstop Kolby Fesmire bunts during the softball game against Missouri Southern Sept. 22
Bunge spoke highly of all teams in the tournament, especially Illinois State, North Carolina State and Central Florida.
“All three of those teams were good, quality teams and those were good, quality wins for us,” Bunge said.
Bunge was very pleased with the offensive performances of junior third baseman Val Chapple, freshman catcher Brittany Hile and junior outfielder Dougie McCaulley. Chapple came out of the weekend leading the Jayhawks in nine offensive categories, including hits, runs batted in and batting average.
Hile turned in two multi-hit games, scored three runs and drove in a run in her debut weekend with the Jayhawks.
McCaulley finished strong with multi-hit games in the semifinal and championship games while also scoring two runs and driving in one run.
Sophomore first baseman Amanda Jobe also did her part for the Jayhawks in the tournament, getting seven hits and driving in the winning run in the semifinal game against Illinois State.
“The whole team, and especially the pitchers as a whole, proved how good we’re going to be this season,” Jobe said.
Bunge said she wasn’t surprised by one concern that came up in the tournament: team defense. She said the team had trouble just playing the ball off of the dirt because they had practiced inside for most of the season.
“It takes a little while to adjust yourself to being outside,” Bunge said.
The Jayhawks have been preparing for another warm weather tournament in Las Vegas.
They will try to build on the success of the Central Florida Invitational.
Bunge said it hurt having to practice inside and not being able to practice on dirt.
She said another problem she noticed in the Central Florida Invitational was the throwing errors.
breakbox
Today vs. Oregon at 2 p.m. and vs. Portland State at 5 p.m. Saturday vs. BYU at 11 a.m. Sunday vs. Seton Hall at 11 a.m. and vs. UNLV at 1:15 p.m.
“We just need to get a little bit better each and every day,” Bunge said.
Bunge and Jobe said the team wanted to focus on continuing success of achieving their season goals in this tournament. They said the team wanted to stay aggressive on the base paths.
Bunge said that she wanted to see the offense continue it’s steady output, they outscored their opponents 24 to 12 in the Central Florida tournament, and of course she wanted to see the defense put together a better weekend than last.
The Jayhawks will be challenged in Las Vegas. Oregon, Brigham Young University and the host University of Nevada, Las Vegas will be competing.
Bunge said all those teams were good teams and have gotten of to a good start this season. She said they would be the toughest competition for the Jayhawks.
Bunge said she wanted the team to get pushed by this level of competition.
Last weekend’s performance did not go unnoticed. The Jayhawks received votes in the USA Today/NFCA softball poll for the first time since 2006.
“There’s a lot of people in our conference and a lot of people around the country that really were not giving us the respect that we were due,” Jobe said.
The country has taken notice, and the Jayhawks can open some more eyes with a good performance at the UNLV invitational. Three teams, UNLV, Oregon and BYU, are just outside the rankings in the USA Today/NFCA softball poll. Another strong showing by the Jayhawks this weekend will garner more national attention.
— Edited by Jared Duncan
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