STARKVILLE — Starkville Academy first-year softball coach Rob Barron has had to learn his new team quickly.
Fortunately for Barron, there aren’t many Lady Volunteers to get to know.
Starkville Academy is dressing 12 players this season. However, a strong senior class is expected to lead the way.
After dropping its home opener to Central Academy on Monday, Starkville Academy returns to action at 4 p.m. today at Kemper Academy.
“I am excited about the whole season overall,” Starkville Academy sophomore first baseman Mallory Barber said. “I think we will compete well. If we keeps our heads up and don’t get down, we can win a good bit of our games.”
Starkville Academy has had to learn a new coach during the offseason. However, eight of the 12 players are seniors. This group has played together for a long time and the bond they have formed has helped push them through hard times.
“We have a really big group of seniors which is always nice,” Starkville Academy senior pitcher Sara Tinsley said. “There are a lot of experienced girls. Getting better over the season is our main goal. We are trying to have fun while we are working hard. The strength of this team is we play together well. On defense, we should be really strong. We have to get better on offense but we are good on defense.”
Barron, who coached at Oak Hill Academy last season, feels like his squad has made giant strides in three weeks of practice. The challenge is to continue to improve.
“It’s really an ongoing process for this team,” Barron said. “The fielding, hitting and pitching has gotten better. It’s all about fundamentals for this team. Fundamentals, fundamentals. That is what we teach every day in practice. We have to get outs when the opportunity presents itself.”
In a 17-2 loss to Central Academy to open the season, Barron said the Lady Vikings scored eight runs with two outs in an inning. It is that type of mental lapse the team can ill afford going forward.
“It was an inability to make the routine play,” Barron said. “Sometimes the girls get caught up in making the SportsCenter type play. That is what we don’t need to worry about. We just need to make the simple, routine plays. Those add up. If we make enough of the little plays, we will be fine.”
Adrienne Futral emerged as one of the team’s best players in the last couple of seasons. The squad’s catcher, Futral has formed a strong bond with Tinsley.
“Sara is accurate the whole time,” Futral said. “She is really a good pitcher. We just have to pick her up on defense. We have to a do better job of making all the plays.”
Barron called Futral the team’s “best all-around athlete.” He has also been working Anna Beth Robertson some at catcher.
“We would like to get Adrienne out in the field more,” Barron said. “Hopefully, Anna Beth can give us some reps at catcher. Adrienne is the type of player who can take over a game. So we need her athleticism in the field more. However, she has a great working relationship with Sarah and that is really important, too.”
Futral said it has been challenging to make some changes this season. Kayla Mosley coached the Starkville Academy softball program the past four seasons.
However, the growth from last season is vital if the team is going to continue to make strides.
“Being able to grow from last year is very important,” Futral said. “We have the same set of girls for the most part so we just need to keep improving.
“The things we have messed up on we need to learn from. We need to not make the same mistakes and keep striving to get better.”
Other team members include Tiffany Clarke, Hailey Nason, Brittany Miles, Evy Lowrimore, Morgan Fore, Abby Orrick, Alyssa Canoy, and Austin Tucker.
“We have a lot of challenges with so few players,” Barron said. “With only three players on the bench, we have a hard time pinch hitting or pinch running. When people find out that two-thirds of the team are seniors, they immediately think, ‘Man, they are loaded.’
“That is simply not the case since a lot of these girls didn’t play a lot last year. We just need some game experience. We have maturity. We are just young from an experience standpoint. All I really ask for them is to get better as we go along.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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