When a team enters a new season, there are different challenges and things they will have to deal with in order to improve and be successful. This slowpitch softball season was tough for the Hennessey Lady Eagles, but head coach Lee Linsenmeyer says that his squad did not give up and he saw a lot of progress by season’s end.

“We knew this season would be a little bit more challenging because one of our best players, freshman Jaryn Dowell, would be out with an injury,” Linsenmeyer said. “This caused us to have to change up our lineup. Our schedule was very challenging as we played many ranked teams and past state champions. As the season progressed we saw that we could play with most teams and we continued to improve. By the end of the season, we were playing our best softball. Districts were disappointing but we never gave up.”

While having Dowell out for the season was tough, Linsenmeyer says that they had a number of players step up and make an impact this season.

“Before the season started, I felt that we had a very good chance at having one of the best seasons in many years but we found out that one of our best players, and maybe our biggest bat, was having surgery for an injury and would be out all season. But that void in the lineup was taken over and filled by a few different players. Sophomore Katie Kennedy was a shortstop and played a major role in the lineup, hitting .544. First baseman Noelle Pollard, a senior, had only one error the entire season and was a two-hole hitter. Another senior, Chloe Moery, was one of our best outfielders on defense. Lastly, Tayler Franklin, a freshman third baseman had a big stick, hitting .508 and led the team in RBIs.”

There were other issues that Linsenmeyer and his squad had to deal with throughout the season.

“Besides the injury to Dowell, we had a hard time finding a consistent lineup as we had several players miss games for other school activities.”

Overall, the coach said that he is proud of the way his squad handled the season and he looks forward to next season.

“This was a great group of girls to coach,” Linsenmeyer said. “This is my first graduating class and my three seniors will be greatly missed next year. We will be a very young team next year with only one senior but we also have some very talented eighth-graders moving up. I expect to see maybe the best softball team next year since I have been at Hennessey.”