This past week was a rough one for Manhattan Indians softball, who dropped to a record of 2-4 following four-straight loses. The Indians fell short in a double-header against the Topeka High Trojans 6-2 and 9-0 on April 3 and were defeated by McPherson 5-1 and Great Bend 7-3 in a triangular on March 31. All four losses took place at the Indians’ brand new home venue: CiCo Park, where MHS is winless so far this season. The Indians were outhit 44-18 between the four games; though making contact at the plate wasn’t the problem early on.
“Offensively, we hit the ball, [but] we just hit right to people,” head coach Jori Bellas said after the triangular. “But I feel like we did well at the plate, just our defense wasn’t clicking like it has at practice and it did last week against Lawrence High.”
The game against Great Bend marked the Indians’ first time playing at the newly-renovated CiCo Park, after playing their home games in previous years at Twin Oaks Sports Complex in Anneberg Park.
“The environment [at CiCo is] so much better,” Ball said. “It was so cool seeing everyone down here…Having people here and having Manhattan High School Support was awesome. And this place is so cool.”
While playing at the brand new field for the first time was exciting, the infield turf was so new that it caused a few problems.
“[Junior] Gracyn [Neitzel] slipped coming out of home plate or coming out of the box,” Bellas said. “And so, just working through that, and that’s just going to take us being on the turf and wearing it down a little bit to where they can not slip and slide.”
The Indians started their season off with a pair of road wins in a double-header vs. Lawrence 7-3 and 12-5 on March 27.
This season, Manhattan fields a fairly young team. Kat Ball and Ava Gaither are the only two seniors. Juniors Neitzel, Solveig Chase, Harper Bailey, Maryn Meusborn and Tierra Young all played solid Varsity minutes last season; and the same can be said about sophomores Celia Courtright and Josi Alesana. Alongside that experienced core, three freshmen joined the Varsity mix: Allison Heidrick, Aslyn Foveaux and Josey Ball. Heidrick, in particular, has burst on the scene as a solid pitcher having started and finished the Indians’ second game of the season against Lawrence and added a win to her stat sheet.
“I felt [my pitchers] threw really well. I mean, we’ve got a freshman, a sophomore and a junior, and that’s exciting. It’s all different levels of experience,” Bellas said about Heidrick, Alesana and Bailey after the triangular.
The Indians are currently in the middle of a road trip. MHS had a double-header against Haysville Campus on April 7 and have a double-header against rival Junction City on April 14.
“I feel like we’re really bonding well as a team, almost that family atmosphere,” Bellas said “They keep talking about ‘this is a family.’”
