Softball looks to reclaim victory

Cole Schmitt, Social Media Manager

After falling to Rossville and Topeka High, the Manhattan High softball team is looking to bounce back this week on the road against Topeka West and Seaman.

“Rossville is just a good hitting team,” head coach Connie Miller said. “They have always had a solid program and they were able to hit the ball in the holes so that’s why they were so successful. Topeka High just has an outstanding picture. We were actually leading early in the game before they made a pitching change and [the pitcher] just shut us down.”

The games against Rossville and Topeka High were not what the team was looking for, falling big time by more than 10 runs, three out of the four games. Miller and the team are looking to use this week as a building and learning week.

“We talked a lot about that this week was really tough,” Miller said. “It’s tough to take that back to back losses like that and we have to view this as a character building week.”

As the season goes on, the Indians are trying to stay positive and optimistic.

“We really have to dig deep and think about how [the players] individually contributed in the thing that they can,” Miller said. “We try to maintain a positive message to keep our heads up and stay the course.”

Miller believes the players and the coaches need some time to let the young players settle in. With little time playing on the Varsity team, they want to make sure every player is acclimated. “The thing I think that the kids don’t realize is that of our starting nine players, only two of them have Varsity experience, so seven of those kids have never played this caliber of ball before, so it’s frustrating for them,” Miller said. “You can’t always step on the field and perform at that level just right away. It’s going to take some time and some patience on their part and the coaching staff’s part. If we just stay the course and keep doing the right things then you know it will all come about.”

Although some of the results have been tough against the Indians this year, the team still has high hopes for the rest of the season. The team believes something so simple as working more on fundamentals are what could help the Indians win games.

“[We just need] to keep talking, to be aggressive to the ball and just keep working as a team,” freshman Kaitlyn Gregoire said. “[We need to improve on] working as a team and not getting in our heads and just being positive overall.”