It’s all about preparation for Class 2A, Region 2 play and potentially the playoffs for the Eupora Lady Eagle softball team every season and Amir Hunt is trying to harden his team in the first part of the schedule again this year.
The Lady Eagles threw first pitch two weeks ago at Northeast Community College when they came up short against Class 1A state championship contender Smithville. They followed that up with two more title hopefuls last week in different classifications.
Vardaman was up first as last year’s 1A state champs and they met at Eupora for the home opener last Tuesday. The Lady Rams brought home the trophy for the first time in school history last season and they came out firing early this year as they jumped on the Lady Eagles 9-1.
Eupora (1-3) fought back with a six-run inning to make it 9-7, but the Lady Rams were resilient at the plate and pulled away with a 13-7 victory. Hunt was expecting the hits and runs from his counterpart, but he needs more production from his lineup. He also was disappointed with his group not playing strong defense like they’ve grown accustomed to doing.
“We’ve got to hit the ball better throughout the lineup against good teams like Vardaman. They’re good and the defending 1A state champs,” Hunt said. “I told the girls that there were four or five runs that (Vardaman) shouldn’t have scored if we make two or three routine plays.”
Aubree and Addison Mason both had a good evening at the park with two hits a piece while Rylee Brooke Crowell finished 2-for-3 with a double and a triple.
The offense was much better on Friday when Eupora met up with a tough Class 4A team in Caledonia.
The Lady Eagles had 10 hits in the game spread across both the top half and bottom of the lineup as they won 8-6 over the Lady Confederates to hand Caledonia its first loss of the year. Eight of the nine batters in the lineup got hits.
Starting pitcher Harper Doggett threw the first 5.0 innings and Meleah Pogue shut down a rally late to lead the team to a win.
“We hit the ball really well against Caledonia who is one of the top 4A teams in the state,” Hunt said. “Most of our hits the first two games came from the top four batters in the lineup, but we haven’t been able to score them. There was a big difference in that game against Caledonia.”
Addison Mason was 2-for-4 and Crowell went 2-for-3 as both players again led the way.
The tough competition continues this week as Eupora travels to Houston on Thursday to take on the Hilltoppers. They finish off the week with a home game against Nanih Waiya on Friday and two games against French Camp Academy and Noxapater at the Ethel Round Robin on Saturday afternoon.
All games are weather permitting as rain is again in the forecast this week.
“I’d like to play Houston and keep the momentum going that we have. We have a brutal first half of the schedule, but I hope that after this it will ease up a little bit,” Hunt said. “We’re slowly getting better and we beat a really good Caledonia team on Friday night. Hopefully we can build off of that.”
