It’s all clicking for the Wetumpka softball team in the early stretch of the season.
Last Wednesday, Wetumpka took on Benjamin Russell in a rematch and came away with a resounding 12-1 victory over the Wildcats. Like it had been the entire year — the hitting was on full display.
The Indians logged nine hits split between Ava Farmer, Autymn Hollon, Lily Davenport, Alyssa Brown and Sophie Arant. Brown arguably had the best night going a perfect three-for-three in her at-bats, scoring two runs and logging four RBIs on the day. Farmer and Hollon also joined her with multiple hits.
At that point in the season, Wetumpka crossed 10 runs in six of its last 12 games. Coach Daryl Otwell attributed the success to not just being a few standouts for his team, it's the entire batting lineup.
“One thing that I think our team is doing a good job is that their strike zone awareness is very good,” Otwell said. “We're not chasing pitches out of the zone. We're drawing walks. This team from top to bottom, we're having a lot of success all the way through our lineup. And I think a lot of our early success this season has been because we just hadn't had that one or two girls on fire, we have been really good top to bottom.”
Having success from multiple girls gives the Indians some leeway when it comes to a possible dip in production or needing to give some girls some rest.
“We've played pretty much 12 girls so far this year,” Otwell said. “All of them have got to start. All of them have a good amount of at-bats. We have 13 girls on our varsity, and we feel like they all can produce and if we got a girl that has a couple of bad at-bats, we're not afraid to go to somebody else, give them a chance.”
It’s not just the hitting that is proving to be dominant for the Indians, the pitching and defense that is also performing at a high level. Against Benjamin Russell, pitcher Abigail Adams took over. She only surrendered one hit and one run in the game while the defense kept Benjamin Russell off the scoreboard for most of the day.
“I was really proud of our pitching,” Otwell said. “I thought Abigail Adams did a great job, came in and threw some strikes. Something we've been talking about with our young pitchers is staying ahead, we really take pride in our defense. We hang our hat on that. And I thought she did a great job throwing strikes. Our defense played really well behind her, kind of what we preach, throw strikes and play good defense.”
Now, Otwell wants to keep his foot on the gas and he’s trying to get that throughout the team as well. On the field, he does not see much to improve upon, especially with how well Wetumpka is playing. He just wants to make sure his team does not get complacent even when it possesses a multiple-run lead.
“I'm challenging our young team to really finish games, like it doesn't matter if you're up 10-0, 12-0, 4-0,” Otwell said. “We're learning not to play the scoreboard, to play every pitch, and just compete hard every pitch, and because, in this season, you're going to have some leads where maybe they get cut into a little bit and just try to play every pitch, not play the scoreboard but just play each pitch.”
