Softball team shows improvement

The young softball team at Chase County Schools gained valuable experience this season.
Head Coach Denise Smith wrapped up the season with a review of the 2019 stats after closing out the year at the district tournament earlier this month.
“One good thing about this year was we hardly had any out with illness or injury,” Smith said.
“It’s kind of funny though,” she added.
“Last year we didn’t have great numbers and everyone was getting hurt. This season we had plenty of girls and no one had serious problems.”
The team finished with a 1-23 record.
Numbers up this year
Smith’s team was quite a bit larger than years past, with the surprise of a large group of freshmen.
“Anytime you have a big freshman bunch with a group of older girls, to me, it’s a good balance, because then they can watch what’s going on and pick up things of what’s happening, good, bad or otherwise and they learn by even just seeing that,” Smith said.
When it comes to looking at numbers for next season though, Smith is unsure.
“People always ask me, ‘What’s it look like? What do you think? How do you know?’ You never know,” she said.
“I could have a meeting tomorrow and ask who’s going out next year. I could have a meeting in April and say who’s going out this fall. By August, it might be completely different.
Smith will lose three seniors to graduation this year, Carissa Hill, Sydnie Allen and Valerie Herbert.
If her roster from this season stays the same and she doesn’t gain anyone new, the team will have 16 girls next season.
Season stats
Hill was the starting pitcher this year, and put in the most innings.
“Our pitching stats were a little better than last year along with our fielding percentage,” Smith said.
Also pitching were sophomore Morgan Peterson and freshman Kayla Chavira.
Both Peterson and Hill were in their second year of varsity pitching.
“Pitching, of course, is a key factor in our game and that is always something that needs to be developed and worked on,” Smith added.
Chavira came on the team with not much pitching experience but performed well, Smith said.
“She pitched a full game at Scottsbluff,” Smith added, “I think she was pretty tired after that” but it was good practice for next year.
With Hill graduating, Peterson and Chavira will be stepping more into the pitching game next season.
Smith is proud of the offensive improvements the team has shown.
“We had more doubles and triples this year,” she said. “We need to work on pushing runs across when they are on base and hitting the ball in general is always an area for improvement.”
Chase County finished with a team batting average of .201, with shortstop Morgan Peterson leading the squad with a .345 average.
She also led the team in slugging percentage (.564), hits (19), doubles (5) and triples (2). Peterson also had one homerun in the books for the season.
Ryley Vrbas was close behind, with 18 hits and two triples.
In other season stats and a repeat from last season, Vrbas tallied the most walks with 13, and Morayah Cupp had 12.
Ashley Benge and Ansley Maronde each had 12 RBIs.
Defensively, first baseman Ryley Vrbas had 104 put-outs to lead the team.