Elliot’s Lang swinging hot bat
Accomplishments: Tabitha Lang is making up for lost time at home plate.
The Elliot Christian High softball player, a senior third baseman who didn’t play last year, has been on a hitting tear this season. In a Central California Athletic Alliance home game against Brookside Christian on April 4, Lang hit for the cycle in the Eagles’ 23-1 win over the Knights. Lang went 4-for-5 and hit for the cycle with a home run, triple, double and single. She totaled eight RBIs and scored twice.
Two days later in another league game at Venture Academy, Lang smacked another home run, along with two doubles and five RBIs. That helped Elliot (3-3 in the CCAA, 7-4-1) to a 21-4 win.
Entering Tuesday’s CCAA home game against Stone Ridge Christian, Lang is batting .576. She is one of four Elliot players batting over .500; Annabelle Sepp, Madi Sepp and McKenzie Salinas are the others, and Grace Robles is close at .469. As a team, the Eagles have a .416 team batting average.
Against Brookside, Lang grounded out in her first at-bat. But she treated her second at-bat as if it was her first trip to the plate in the game.
“Keep it in the past, you know you have to move on,” Lang said. “I just kept my mind clear on what I did at my last at-bat, so I could have a clean record. I just tried to treat each at-bat as its (new) at-bat.”
In the bottom of the third inning, Lang clubbed a solo home run to left field and doubled. She had two of the Eagles’ eight hits in the frame, which led to nine runs and a 19-1 lead over the Knights.
Now going 3-for-4, Lang completed the hitting cycle in the bottom of the fourth inning with a single, also to left field.
Last year, Lang didn’t play because of surgery on her right knee before the start of the season. According to her, the knee cap would pop out of place because of parts of the knee weren’t aligned correctly.
“My knee cap would pop out of socket,” Lang said. “I did not expect for the surgery to be so hard to recover from.”
Lang played in the Eagles’ Sac-Joaquin Section Division VII playoff game against New Life Christian of Olivehurst, which defeated Elliot 10-2 in the first round. The pain was too much for her even during the simplest functions in batting and fielding. “I could barely run,” recalled Lang. The limited mobility in the Eagles’ playoff game only motivated Lang to work harder last summer as a member of the USA Elite 18 and under competitive softball team, based out of Stockton.
“It was a process,” Lang said. “It was really hard to come back from it. Emotionally and physically, it took a toll on me. I was use to going out every day and playing softball.”
Lang played fall ball for USA Elite. She gradually got back into the hang of drills to build up her strength.
“It was still very tight and very hard to play at my fullest,” Lang said.
Speed up to this season, and the knee is doing just fine.
“I barely remember having knee surgery last year,” joked Lang.
This year’s Elliot squad, which is in the hunt for one of the CCAA’s four playoff berths — Elliot is currently in third place — has a combination of experienced ball players such as Lang, outfielder Tayton McCortsin, Robles, who doubles as one of the Eagles’ pitchers and the Sepp sisters. The other half includes newcomers and three underclassmen.
“As a team, we have a ton of potential,” Lang said. “We have a ton of new athletes out here, but have never played softball. The more experienced girls are working with the inexperienced girls ... we (returning players) teach them, they are learning. We are a closeknit team.”
Lang is enjoying life on the diamond for Elliot. Once the high school softball team season is over, other than playing on summer competitive softball teams in upcoming years, Lang will be resting her gloves, bats and cleats. She’ll be attending San Diego State this fall to major in political science, but has no plans on playing for the college’s softball team.