It’s always tough starting the season on the road — especially when a team has a lot of new and younger players.
For the Liberty County High School softball team, it meant a 0-1 start when the Lady Panthers fell, 10-5, on Friday at Claxton.
Liberty County coach Jerome Standard said it was a combination of things that led to the girls’ downfall. The past few weeks of rain hampered their practices, and he said he has new players on the squad this year whom he still needs to find the right places for.
Returning Lady Panther pitchers Lori Harden and Victoria Anthony started against Claxton. Harden pitched 2 1/3 innings before Anthony took the mound. Standard said Anthony struggled on the mound, so Harden was brought back into the game. But two errors and 10 walks allowed didn’t help the situation.
“It wasn’t a good outing or a good start,” Standard said. “We have a lot of young kids out there right now, and we are still looking to see where everyone should be.”
Standard had freshmen playing catcher, shortstop and first base and a sophomore playing center field during the game. Veteran Gabriela Anthony played in left field Friday, but Standard said he is thinking of moving her to the infield. He said establishing a starting catcher is in the works.
“You would like to see the young kids play and develop, but based on Friday’s game we are thinking of moving Victoria Anthony to catcher …There are still just a lot of question marks right now,” he said.
Liberty was scheduled to play Tuesday at Long County and will travel this weekend to Reidsville for Tattnall County’s Blast Tournament. On Friday, the Lady Panthers play Wheeler at 5:30 p.m. and North Hampsted at 8:30 p.m. On Saturday, the Lady Panthers hit the field at 9 a.m. against Portal and 3 p.m. against Southeast Bulloch. The Lady Panthers will get a rematch against Claxton at 6 p.m.