Lady Wolves Fixing Little Things

LINCOLN SOFTBALL BATTLES ERRORS, INEXPERIENCE

LINCOLN — A young Lincoln softball team came into the season facing the challenge of having to replace a veteran pitcher and catcher with the graduation of Kayleen Rush and Ashtin Calico.

Enter senior Shelby Rowe continuing to embrace a leadership role she assumed midway through the girls basketball season. The senior outf ielder asserted herself at the plate and twice hit home runs in the first two games of the season.

“She’s really looking real good for us, she’s shown good leadership and is swinging the bat real well,” said Lincoln coach Karen Coleman.

The Wolves’ desperately needed Rowe’s bat and on- the- field exhortation when they got off to a horrible start against Elkins last Wednesday.

“We had some errors in the first part of the game and let Elkins get up on us, 11- 0,” Coleman said. “We kind of settled down and we got seven runs. Then, Shelby hit a three- run homer that made it, 11-10.”

A l though L inco ln lost, 14- 12, Coleman was impressed when her team did not fold and give up with the large deficit.

“I told the girls how proud I was of them not to give up,” Coleman said. “When we were down 11-0 after three innings they didn’t give up, they fought back and they fought hard.”

The Lady Wolves also tightened things up on defense allowing just three runs after the 11-run deluge in the opening trio of innings.

“We didn’t have many errors after the first three innings,” Coleman said.

The Lincoln girls played in the Van Buren tournament with two games on Friday. Playing against Gravette and Paris, Lincoln worked to compete but could not pull off either victory.

“We lost both of them, but we really played hard,” Coleman said. “The girls really worked together and had a good showing on both of them.”

On Saturday, the Lady Wolves played a double- header against tourney- host Van Buren and were plagued by fielding troubles throughout both games.

“We just had error after error. I don’t want to take anything away from Van Buren, they hit the ball really well but we had so many errors,” Coleman said. “After Saturday I told them I want the team back that we had Friday night. We are kind of young. What we need more than anything right now is more playing time.”

“When we fix the little things that we’re doing wrong, I think we’re going to be alright.”