The Hillsboro Lady Indians softball team is facing a rebuilding year, according to coach Katie Moberly, with three seniors, one junior and a crowd of freshmen ready to get on the field.
“It’s definitely a rebuilding year for us,” she said. “We graduated five seniors last year who played varsity softball for between three and four years. That’s not easy to replace, but I have like 15 freshmen coming out this year, so we’re going to be young, but there’s a big group of them, so that’s always positive. I have three seniors and one junior, so we’re going to be fielding a lot of young ones.”
On the senior roster, Breanne Mottie will play second base, while Lizzy Mahan will take third and Savannah Scott will be a centerfielder.
The Lady Indians will start a freshman pitcher this year in Christine Page, with junior Riley Moberly to back her up.
In addition to Page, the freshman roster includes Jordan Williamson in left field and Darien Eakins as a catcher, while Heather Burba will fill in wherever she’s needed.
“The freshmen will have to prove themselves to play,” Moberly said. “Every day is still a work in progress. A few of them will play reserve and varsity.”
Moberly said she hopes this season will build maturity in the freshman class.
“Our weakness right now is our youth and lack of experience,” she said. “We should get better as the season goes on.”
Right now, Moberly said the team needs to find a new confidence level.
“A few of them are apprehensive,” she said, “just afraid they’re going to mess up. They just have to convince themselves they know how to do what they do.”
If they do that, Moberly said, some of the strong hitters on the team will be able to score runs.
“This is considered a building year, so everything’s not going to go the way they want it to,” she said. “Anything we can do to learn from that is a positive.”
Reach David Wright at 937-402-2570, or on Twitter @DavidWrighter.
