Home runs, and making sure no one fights alone
The Lake City and Post Falls high school varsity softball teams donated a total of $360 to Kootenai Health Foundation’s cancer support group on Friday. Here, they pose for a photo prior to the FIGHT to Save Second Base games for cancer awareness at Lake City. In the front row from left are Ashley Kaufman (Lake City), Olivia Zufelt (Lake City), Kaycie Barber (Post Falls), Jalyssa Beamer (Lake City), Kelsey Horn (Post Falls), Bailee Taylor (Lake City), Bubba Gleaves (Post Falls), Brooke Collins (Lake City), McKenna Moak (Post Falls), Ashlynn Allen (Lake City) and Alyssa Krause (Post Falls)…
Launch angle is a big reason for the increase in home runs in major league baseball in recent years.
In softball, it’s not quite like that.
At Lake City High, they’re not trying to hit home runs — they’re just trying to mash the ball.
“Our main focus is line drives — and if a home run happens, it happens,” Timberwolves senior Emma Gray said.
Lake City (20-0), which moved into MaxPreps’ top 25 national rankings this week at No. 25, has hit 44 homers through 20 games this season. The school record is 53, set in 2013 — Casey Stangel’s senior season.
“A lot of these home runs are not towering home runs,” Lake City coach Jesse Lenz said. “They’re line drive shots, and that’s what we ask for and preach. And they’re not all to left field; you see middle-away a lot, too.
SEVEN TIMBERWOLVES have hit between three and eight home runs this year, led by seniors Gray and Olivia Zufelt, and junior Ashlynn Allen, each with eight. Senior Jalyssa Beamer has seven homers, sophomore Abby Jankay five, junior Lacey Lemburg four, senior Ashley Kaufman three.
“And 1 through 9 can do it (go deep),” Lenz said. “I attribute that to great ballplayers who have put a ton of time on their swings, and you’re seeing the result.”
The lefty-hitting Gray, who hit a team-high nine homers last year, admits there’s a friendly competition among the team members — many of whom have played summer ball together for years, and help each other with their swings.
“I think we pump each other up for every home run that we hit, and I think it just makes us feel better as a team when we hit home runs,” she said.
OK, maybe the table setters at the top of the order, Bailee Taylor and Reilley Chapman, aren’t going yard. But that’s not their job.
The other day, against Post Falls, Chapman was on third base, and came off a few steps down the line toward home when a teammate turned on an inside pitch and smoked a liner down the line, just foul, that drilled Chapman in the ribs on her right side.
Chapman hit the ground and took a few minutes to gather herself. She stayed in the game. A few innings later, playing second base, she dove to her right to snare a liner and save two runs that would have tied the game.
“She wasn’t coming out,” Lenz said. “She’s a fighter, she’s a trooper, she’s a great teammate. She’s been a trooper all four years.”
LENZ BECAME choked up while talking after the games last Friday, but it wasn’t because of the games.
His mom, Ginni (Walker) Lenz, died five years ago — on Mother’s Day, no less — after a battle with cancer.
That’s why the FIGHT to Save Second Base games for cancer awareness have an extra special meaning for him.
Lake City and Post Falls teamed up to start the Save Second Base games a little over a decade ago, spurred on by a Lake City player whose grandmother was battling breast cancer.
As Jesse Lenz became involved in the Lake City program a few years ago, the event morphed into FIGHT to Save Second Base. Lenz’s coed slowpitch softball team, which includes several family members, runs a cancer awareness tournament in Rathdrum every year.
“It gives me chills to talk about it,” Lenz said. “But our biggest thing is, no one ever fights alone; you always have people around, with you.”
Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.