Lady Hornets confident in first varsity year
By KRIS BAGLEY sports@leader-news.com

Photo by Morris Williams The Windup ... Freshman pitcher Cheyenne Collins leads the Lady Hornets with 32 strikeouts in Louise's first varsity softball season.

Louise's softball program began last year with a junior varsity team and has grown competitive on the varsity level. Now, the Lady Hornets are playing in front of a home crowd for the first time.

Tuesday, the team took to the newly established softball field to host Moulton and Thursday the Lady Hornets will take on Burton. The team is 3-8 so far this season and is experiencing confidence as they continue district play.

"To be quite honest with you, our expectation is to win both games this week," Head Coach Robert Workmon said. "We think we can compete with both Moulton and Burton. We've watched some of their scores and Burton and us have played two common opponents. We've both played Snook and we've both played Hempstead. We were able to beat Hempstead where Hempstead was able to beat Burton and then we both beat Snook."

Louise's confidence could even lead to a post-season spot.

"Not knocking Burton or Moulton in the slightest, but the girls believe they can win," Workmon said. "Their belief is that we're going to get two wins this week and put ourselves in position going on the road to both of those teams with a chance to make the playoffs this year.

"It is just a five-team district and Shiner and Flatonia are the class of the district. As long as they take care of their business, if we can pick up a couple of wins between these two teams, we believe we can make the playoffs."

Last year's experience as a winless junior varsity team has helped the Lady Hornets get past some struggles this season. Workman said the return- ing players have been a strong presence in leadership for a team filled with freshmen.

"I think having a year of experience, although we still are very young, it has helped," he said. "We've got a couple sophomores that have been kind of a rock early in the year when our freshmen didn't really know how to react to losses. They were there (saying), 'We're making mistakes, yeah, but go about it the right way. Take it the right way.'"

Of Louise's six freshmen, three of them play in the infield. Cheyenne Collins pitches for the Lady Hornets while Katie Brown catches and Kelsi Kutac plays first base.

"(Collins) has pitched quite a bit locally," Workmon said. "She's not been a number one before, but she's gotten a lot of innings and she's showing the ability to get better.

"(Brown) is batting about .500 for us this year. She does a good job behind the plate. She was (all-county) in volleyball and basketball. She's an allaround athlete and we look forward to great things from her in the future.

"(Kutac) is second on the team in batting and she even has a home run. She picked up a home run in Pettus. Just a tremendous athlete and comes from a great athletic family. I see nothing but improvement from her."

Sophomores Coral Gonzales, Sabrina Crume and Tana Townsend play second base, shortstop and third base.

"(Gonzales) has done a lot to show the younger kids what it takes to be good," Workmon said. "(Crume) has got quite a bit of competitive fire. She's the one that after a loss, if those girls are cracking up, she cracks down on them. (Townsend) has a good arm. She has to learn the position. She hasn't played there before so we look forward to her improving."

Junior Amber Perez and freshmen Haley Jansky and Jecenia Guevera cover the outfield for Louise.

"(Perez) was our third baseman, but we needed some help in the outfield," the coach said. "Like every girl on the team, she showed the willingness to do what it took to make the team better.

"(Jansky) has great range and can hit the ball a little bit. In practice, she makes all the plays, but in practice, you get a little more tight. She makes about 75 percent of the plays she should get to and I don't think she's far off from making 100 percent of the plays, plus a few that will shock some people.

"(Guevera) is involved in powerlifting and she doesn't get as much work as we'd like to see out of her, but she shows a lot of potential. I think, now that powerlifting is over, we'll start to see improvement from her."

Sophomore Amber Bain and freshmen Meagan Janak and Amber Crume complete the Lady Hornets roster.

"(Janak) contributes in a lot of places and helps us in the outfield," Workmon said. "She's always positive and kind of the class clown of the team. She's hard to get down. She always picks us up when we struggle and gets the tightness out.

"Amber Crume, she's a lot like Haley where she's making all the plays in practice but hasn't carried over to the game yet. I'd love to see her make a few plays during the game and I think if she makes one or two, that she'll be over the mountain.

"(Bain) has come back out in the last couple of weeks and has gotten some spot starts. She's probably going to work it for us in the outfield somewhere. She'll probably end up being a pretty big contributor by the time we get half way through district."

Workmon, who coached baseball at Taft before coming to Louise, said he never thought of coaching softball beyond this season. With the quality of players on his team, however, he decided to stay for next year as well.

"I've enjoyed this more than I've enjoyed coaching any other sport," Workman said. "It shocked me. Coming from the boys side, I thought it was going to be tough on me. I honestly love every one of those girls. They're such a pleasure to coach because they want to get better and whenever I ask they do.

"They're taking a beating sometimes out here with line drives and fly balls. They just, with their eyes full of tears, will battle back and say, 'Give me another one, Coach.' They want to get better and it's been such a pleasure coaching them because they're that way. I never thought I would enjoy it this much."