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Playoff payoff: Two years of groundwork could have West back in postseason
BY Kevin Hageland, khageland@starlocalnews.com
After a run of seven straight seasons in the playoffs (2004-10), the Plano West softball team has missed the postseason the past two years.
The Lady Wolves don't need to be reminded of that though, most of them were there.
"The girls want to get back to where we used to be; that's sort of been a rallying cry," said Mike Ledsome, West head coach. "These girls have been in the camps and come to games as seventh and eighth graders, so they know the tradition here and they've seen the banners on the wall."
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"I think the team chemistry has been there from Day 1 for us because we have so many players back," Ledsome said. "These girls enjoy playing together and that's real important."
Despite a massive group of returners, Sophie Ruestmann is the team's only senior.
"Sophie has worked extremely hard to get where she's at," Ledsome said. "And the team just wouldn't be the same without her."
The rest of the returners are juniors (Kelsey Vining, Yoona Lee, Alyson Vick, Holly Neese, Margo Beck, Brinkley Castro) and sophomores (Janae Walsh, Jordan Stone, Kelly Burke, Amelia Trotter, Marissa Butler) with each of those players on varsity since they were freshmen.
The youth movement has continued with the two new additions to the squad in 2013 as Rachel Huskey is a sophomore and Madison Martin is a freshman.
But continuity for the Lady Wolves doesn't mean things have remained the same.
"I told the girls there was going to be a shakeup," Ledsome said. "So what we did was try the girls out at two or three different positions, so we could find the best fits but also develop some versatility to make sure we always have our best nine bats in the lineup."
The biggest change is in the circle.
That was brought about by one of only two graduations from last year's team as Victoria Brown is at Jacksonville University and Butler has taken over pitching duties.
"Marissa is a really confident kid and she has unbelievable potential," Ledsome said. "But she has been dominant in her age group for club or at tournaments and she is realizing she can't always get away with that at the varsity level, so she has been working a lot on her pitch selection instead of just trying to blow it past people."
Butler's battery mate is Beck, though Walsh has also seen some time behind the plate. Beck is one of two infield players in the same position from 2012 as Castro is back at first. Shifts have been made elsewhere with Lee moving from shortstop to second base and Neese going from third to shortstop. Burke, the third in her family to play for the Lady Wolves, is now at third.
Alterations have been made in the outfield too with Vick moving from left field to center. The corner outfield spots have been filled with a mix of Vining, Trotter and Stone.
That's par for the course for Vining as she has played all three outfield spots, shortstop and catcher this season.
"Kelsey is sort of our super utility player," Ledsome said.
The variety of lineups has led to varied amounts of success as West went 8-10 in non-district.
"We definitely had some ups and downs during the tournaments," Ledsome said. "But we also went up against some quality opponents that will help us in the long run."
The Lady Wolves are 1-1 in district thus far. They took 10-5A favorite McKinney Boyd to the limit in the March 8 opener before dropping a 4-1 decision.
"It was 2-1 in the sixth inning," Ledsome said. "We couldn't lay off the rise ball early and then couldn't get the key hit when we needed it late."
West got its first district win Monday with a 13-2 thrashing of Allen in which Lee, Vick and Trotter got extra-base hits and Neese smacked a home run. But the Lady Wolves will have to string together multiple victories, starting with a 7 p.m. road game Tuesday versus McKinney, if they hope to make the playoffs for the first time since 2010.
"We have to beat or at least split against the Plano teams and Boyd," Ledsome said, "and then beat the teams we should."
Ledsome dubbed that, "a very reasonable goal."
"We are full of young talent and I'm excited to see how they progress," he added. "With the quality of kids we have here, I definitely think we can make the playoffs. And once you get in, anything can happen."
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