Softball

2/4/2010

Lander softball opens Saturday at Aiken tournament

Coach Brandon Duncan

GREENWOOD – The 2010 Lander softball team has 17 players, including nine freshmen and two junior transfers. That leaves six returning players from last season and little idea what to expect this spring.

“We don’t know who is going to step up. We don’t know who is going to emerge from the pack,” Lady Bearcats third-year head coach Brandon Duncan said. “And we know that all of those things that are questions marks to us are also question marks to our opponents.”

Lander hopes to improve from last year’s records of 14-31 overall and 2-16 in the rugged Peach Belt Conference, which features the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the national preseason poll in North Georgia College & State University (50-5 last year) and 2008 College World Series participant Francis Marion.

“We only have six players who were here last year,” Duncan said. “Nobody knows what to expect and the coaches are just as much a part of that as anybody. I like how our players show up everyday excited to be here, and they are getting antsy to start playing.”

The Lady Bearcats open their season Feb. 6-7 at a tournament in Aiken. Following a road game at Erskine, Lander has its home opener Feb. 13 versus Brevard College.

There won’t be many opportunities to see the Lady Bearcats playing at home early in the season. However, from March 10 – April 6, Lander plays all 10 of its scheduled double-headers at home at Doug Spears Field.

One of the few known quantities on the team is sophomore All-Peach Belt pitcher Hayley Leissner (Jefferson, Ga.), who will be counted upon heavily again this season.

As a freshman last year, Leissner set the school single-season strikeout record with 190, breaking Sarah Permenter’s 180 set in 2004. Her won-loss record was only 10-23 record, but seven of her losses were by only one run.

Leissner posted a 2.67 earned run average, walking only 37 of the 772 batters she faced over 191.2 innings. She also pitched a no-hitter March 21 versus Georgia Southwestern.

Duncan is hoping that Leissner can benefit this year by having more pitches in her repertoire and by having a better overall pitching staff.

“Hayley has a little bit of a new look this year,” Duncan revealed. “She is still throwing the rise ball and the curve ball. We’ve added about three pitches that people probably won’t be expecting from her.

“Hopefully that will allow her an added dimension to continue to get better. We are hoping that it will economize some of her pitches so she does not have to throw six or seven pitches per at-bat. We hope she can get a couple of one-pitch outs and save her arm a little bit.”

Lander has added some more pitching potential with freshmen Shelbey Spencer (Pacolet, S.C.) and Amanda Hamby (Belton, S.C.).

“They were, in my opinion, the two best pitchers coming out of high school in our state last year,” Duncan said of Spencer (Broome High School) and Hamby (Belton-Honea Path). “They both are top-notch and can shut down anybody on any given day.

“They are power pitchers with rise balls and curve balls, and both have good changeups and mix things (pitches) up pretty well. Shelbey chose us over (South) Carolina and Hamby chose us over just about every school in the state. They are two really good pickups for us.”

The addition of Spencer and Hamby should lessen Leissner’s work load, Duncan hopes.

“From a talent standpoint, I feel like we are a lot better (than last year) with all three pitchers being good enough to win at this level,” Duncan said. “I’d like all three to get some innings because I think that’s what hurt us at the end of the last season when Hayley had to come in for three or four innings at the end of game two. Giving her some relief early, hopefully she will be as strong if not stronger down the stretch.”

Another key new addition is junior catcher Rachelle Adkins (Newnan, Ga.), who last played at Abraham Baldwin Agriculture College in Georgia.

“We have a new look behind the plate,” Duncan said. “Rachelle is our number one catcher right now. She is a gritty, blue collar player. The thing that people are going to get blown away with is the way she throws.

“One, she has a different type throw, especially from a catcher’s standpoint. And when you see the amount of time it takes for her to release the ball and for the shortstop to catch it, there will be no doubt why she’s back there (behind the plate).

“Just by showing off her gun in the throw down between innings will keep a lot of people from running on her. She has one of the strongest arms that I have ever seen at any level that I have coached,” added Duncan, who was an assistant coach at Georgia Tech and Virginia before coming to Lander.

Junior Haley Foster (Boiling Springs, S.C.) also returns and might see some playing time behind the plate. But she will see most of her time as Lander’s starting third baseman.

“She knew coming in that we had a really good catcher,” Duncan said of Foster. “We told her last year that she had some competition and she was really going to have to work hard to play. Being a true competitor, she rose to the challenge. I don’t feel like we would miss a beat with her behind the plate or Rachelle behind the plate.”

Another option behind the plate is one of the team’s two seniors, Daisy Stewart (Roswell, Ga.).

“Daisy has made the switch back behind the dish,” Duncan said. “She didn’t see a lot of time last year (at catcher). Daisy has taken a lot of reps behind the plate as well as at first base.”

Freshman Anna Bowen (Williamston, S.C.) is the likely starter at first base with Hamby also seeing playing time there when she doesn’t pitch. Junior transfer Jacki Haisley (Rock Hill, S.C.) could also potentially see some playing time there once she returns from minor surgery, as well as Stewart.

Freshman Brittney Sheriff (Belton, S.C.) is expected to start at second base.

“She kind of sent the message that if you are going to play second base, you are going to have to go through her. And she is really playing well,” Duncan said of Sheriff.

Freshmen Blair Hammonds (Abbeville, S.C.) and Casey Corbett (West Columbia, S.C.) are battling it out for the starting shortstop position with also a chance to play some at third base when Foster is catching.

“Blair is an impressive looking athlete and has all the intangibles of a middle infielder,” Duncan said. “She has great range, has great arm strength, gets a good read off the ball, and has great hands.

“Casey is the same way. She has an incredible arm and really makes tough plays look easy. It (shortstop) is probably the most contested position on the field. Both want to play.”

With the graduation of the team’s leading hitter last season Sara Senn, Lander will have a new center fielder in red-shirt freshman Ashley Proctor (Saluda, S.C.).

“When you think of Lander softball, you traditionally think of good pitching and good centerfielders like Brantley Mack and Sara Senn,” Duncan said. “We felt real obligated to find a strong center fielder, one who can flat go out and get it and is pretty good offensively.

“I think Ashley will fill in where Senn left off. We made her aware of it early in the fall that you don’t replace Sara Senn and not be good. She is getting better every day.”

Flanking Proctor in the outfield are senior Natalie Smith (Hollywood, Fla.) in right field and either freshmen Alyssa Hartley (Indian Land, S.C.) or Marilyn Newman (Piedmont, S.C.) in left. Smith has also played a lot of infield in her Lander career.

“Natalie is a coach’s dream. You know what you are going to get from her every day. She knows what her role is and what we expect out of her.

Newman helped Wren High School win the state championship in 2009.

“Newman and Hartley both come from powerhouse high school programs and powerhouse travel programs,” Duncan said. “They have one thing in common. They are used to winning and they are used to being on the field. They expect to be in the starting nine. Our outfield is very youthful and very athletic.”

Natalie Batson and Lindsey Traynham, who are both returning sophomores from Ware Shoals, S.C., could also see some playing time in the outfield as well as Haisley, Hammonds or Hamby.

The designated hitter spot provides another position from which someone can contribute.

“It’s going to come down to who is producing offensively,” Duncan said of the DH. “That’s for that 10th person who is really hitting. It’s not in the field, but it’s in the lineup and that’s all you can ask for.”

The dynamics of the hitting order are uncertain, but lefties Sheriff, Proctor and Newman could be among those at the top as well as right-handed hitter Hartley or Smith.

“It’s important to start off a game with a good, quality at-bat, seeing a lot of pitches and rarely striking out,” Duncan said.

Potential middle-of-the-order hitters include Stewart, Foster, Adkins, Newman, Bowen, Hammonds and Corbett.

North Georgia lost only one conference game last season and made it all the way to the College World Series semifinals. With six returning All Peach Belt players, the Saints are the PBC preseason favorites.

Francis Marion lost 11 seniors last year, but “they are every bit as legitimate as North Georgia,” Duncan said. “They have (Michaela) Wolf on the mound who basically pitched them into the World Series a couple years ago (in 2008).”

Georgia College & State University lost star pitcher Mandy Chandler (417 strikeouts in 280 innings, 12 shutouts) but is expected to be strong as well as Augusta State, Armstrong Atlantic, and Columbus State. Lander hopes to be competitive with any of those teams once the Peach Belt season begins.

“One through 10, anybody can beat anybody on any given day,” Duncan said. “It’s a competitive league and if you don’t show up on any given day, you can get beat.