Senior leadership a key for State College High softball

STATE COLLEGE — Longtime assistant James Schaper took over this year as the State College head softball coach, and he and his team have some work to do.

The Little Lions were 12-8 in 2016 and finished with a solid 8-5 record in the Mid-Penn Conference. Three injuries to starting players, however, hampered SC in the playoffs, and after advancing to the District 6 championship game with a 13-2 win over Central Mountain, the Lions fell to Mifflin County, 9-1, in the title game.

“We were down three kids heading into the final,” Schaper said, “so it was try to put your best nine somewhere on the field. We were overmatched a little bit.”

As the new head coach, Schaper will first have to replace two long-time stalwarts for the Lions. Starting pitcher Hannah Shields graduated along with All-State center fielder Alyssa Shedlock. Shedlock was Ms. Everything for SC and is now starting for Juniata College as a freshman.

Still, there is a good nucleus of players returning for the Lions in 2017, and after a 1-1 start so far this season (the win came against Mifflin), Schaper and his team are beginning to put the pieces of the new Lions together.

“We have three seniors who have been starters for the last two years,” Schaper said. “Avery Cymbor, who is my catcher, Andrea Kling is the third baseman, and Kayla Hawbaker, who was in the outfield, has moved into first base. We are looking to have a lot of speed at the corners. We are counting on those three a lot

“They are all good leaders. We have a young pitching staff, and Avery is the catcher. She works very well them. Andrea, being a veteran infielder, has worked well with the other infielders.”

On the mound, SC has young players, but Schaper has hopes they will progress through the season.

“We have Emily Lieb, who is a junior, and this is her first year on varsity,” he said. “We have Sophia Keene, who is a ninth-grader, and she pitched the other day against Mifflin County and threw a really good game. And, we have Emma Wolf, a sophomore who is coming off injuries and who we are going to work in as our third pitcher.”

Those pitchers should be helped by an offense that will rely on contact and moving runners as well as a solid defense.

“We are getting there,” Schaper said. “Our fielding has always been good; we’ve made only two errors in two games out of how many chances. Our percentage is something like .970-80, something like that. We are not striking out a lot. Our motto is to put the ball in play.”

CHALLENGING SCHEDULE 

The Mid-Penn schedule, as usual, will be a challenge, especially for a relatively young team. Beginning Thursday, April 6, SC will play four of its next five conference games on the road. The Lions will be at Chambersburg on April 6, at home with Cumberland Valley on Tuesday, April 11, and then travel to Carlisle (Thursday, April 13), Cedar Cliff (Tuesday, April 18) and Central Dauphin (Thursday, April 20).

“We had a rough start (to the season),” Cymbor said, “but we definitely came back in our second game. We really gelled together as a team and our hitting was on point. We have a lot of chemistry going and we are getting really close.”

Kling agreed with her fellow senior about the progress of the team. “We have a lot of young players, and we all work well together. There’s difficulty acclimating to a higher level of play, they’re definitely learning a lot and I think we are just going to keep getting better.”