The Tyrone girls softball team opens their 2003 season today with a road game at Bishop Guilfoyle. The girls and coach Lois Loncher expect big things this season. Veterans abound on this squad and everybody thinks the potential is there to greatly improve on last year\u2019s 11-10 mark.
\n\u201cVery good,\u201d was coach Loncher\u2019s immediate reply when the question about the season outlook was asked. \u201cWe have a lot of returning experience. The one concern we do have is injuries. If we get an injury here, an injury there, that could cause some problems. We have a good group of kids, good attitudes, they work hard. That is a big positive. We are definitely expecting to improve on last year\u2019s record.\u201d
\nTyrone is in the small school division of the Mountain League again this year, which will help the Lady Eagles. Next year however, with the new super conference Mountain Athletic Conference (MAC). That will change and Tyrone will face tougher competition from bigger schools.
\n\u201cI know the kids are excited to get on the field and play at this point,\u201d stressed Loncher. \u201cWe can make some moves, but if Hilary gets hurt we will be in trouble. We would have to bring in our shortstop in to pitch and that\u2019s where we run into trouble. Most other positions we are in pretty good shape. We just don\u2019t have the depth I would like at pitching. One of the girls that was going to pitch, can\u2019t play right now for health reasons. We are a little thin there, now. We thought that would be one of our strengths going into the season.\u201d
\nLoncher indicated the dedication of many of the girls in playing summer ball to help improve timing and other skills, mentioning, Hilary McNelis, Stephanie Catich, Ashley Carper, Mindy Rudy, Katie Whitby, Missy Stager, Heather Stanton.
\n\u201cThe more you put into not only the more you get out of it, but importantly, you don\u2019t want to lose,\u201d said coach Loncher. \u201cYou don\u2019t start hanging your head on the first bad play or error. I\u2019m excited and they are excited\u201d
\nLoncher will start the season with Katie Whitby leading off and playing third base, Mindy Rudy batting second and playing second base, Ashley Carper will bat third and be at first base, Hilary McNelis will bat cleanup and pitch, number five in the order will be Stephanie Catich playing shortstop, six will be Missy Stager playing right field, seven will be Heather Stanton catching, Eight will be Brittany Wilson in left field and nine will be Loriel Herist in center field.
\nTyrone will not use the new \u201cflex player\u201d in the lineup, at least not early in the season.
\nThe Lady Eagles will open today at BG, then get busy next week with games on Monday, March 31, at Bellwood-Antis, Wednesday, April 2, at home against PIAA state champ Penns Valley and Friday, April 4, at Claysburg-Kimmel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Tyrone girls softball team opens their 2003 season today with a road game at Bishop Guilfoyle. The girls and coach Lois Loncher expect big things this season. Veterans abound on this squad and everybody thinks the potential is there to greatly improve on last year\u2019s 11-10 mark. \u201cVery good,\u201d was coach Loncher\u2019s immediate reply […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46978\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}