Lady Panthers aim to continue tradition
The Cabot Lady Panthers are definitely an upper-echelon team when it comes to softball. Cabot finished 24-6 a year ago, advancing to the Class 7A State Tournament semifinals for the second time in three seasons. Last year, Cabot lost to Bentonville 10-0 in the semifinals. In 2015, Cabot lost to North Little Rock in the state-championship game. The Lady Panthers were knocked out in the quarterfinal round of the state tournament by Rogers in 2016. Cabot returns five starters from last year’s team, which finished tied for second, at 11-3, in the 7A Central with North Little Rock. Those starters are sophomores Grace Neal, Riley Hamilton, Rylie Walthall and Aubrey Lee; and senior Leah Gerald. Cabot coach Chris Cope, who is 104-39 in his first five years at Cabot, said his team’s best hitter for average is Neal, who hit .435 as a freshman. Cope said the best power hitter is Lee, who hit four homers a year ago as a freshman. Cope said Walthall has the best speed on the team. “She patrols the outfield and is our leadoff hitter,” Cope said. “Leah Gerald is also steady on the base paths.” This season, Cabot does not return a solid pitcher. Lauren McCluskey and Hannah Montgomery graduated last year. “This will be our unproven position for the upcoming season, in which we don’t have a pitcher that has any varsity experience yet,” Cope said. “We will be counting on senior Ashlyn Spears, junior Sama Romano and sophomore Layne Smith.” Cope said the Lady Panthers have several college prospects, including Spears, who has already committed to Central Baptist College in Conway. “Grace Neal, Riley Hamilton, Aubrey Lee and Rylie Walthall are all college prospects and are starting to receive offers from different schools,” Cope said. Cope said 7A Central games against Bryant, North Little Rock and Conway are games to watch. The Lady Panthers will play at Conway on March 27 and at home April 20; they host North Little Rock on April 10, then play there May 3; they host Bryant on April 3, then play there April 27. “But we can’t overlook any of them. … The others will be tough as well,” Cope said. “Nonconference games to watch will be Sylvan Hills (March 1), Benton (March 2), Searcy (March 6), Sheridan (April 12) and Beebe (April 5).” Sheridan is the two-time defending Class 6A state champion. As Cope said earlier, pitching will be the biggest issue his team faces this year. “We have some strong candidates, but we will see once the season starts how they will do,” he said. “Hitting will be our strength. We play several good nonconference teams in hopes it will help us for conference play and the postseason. “We return a good nucleus, but we will need several players to step up and fill in for the players that we lost from last season.”