Thunder Softball Optimistic Despite 1-4 Start

Mar 26, 2012

Wes Vork-NSO

Despite a 1-4 start last week at the Rosemount Irish Dome Invitational Tournament, Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College softball coach, Kerry Rodd, is optimistic for the coming season.

“The first thing people will see is that we only won one game,” Rodd stated. “What is lost in the shuffle is the fact that we played the first two games of the first day without our starting shortstop and the entire second day without our #1 pitcher.”

Because of other commitments the Thunder were missing Savannah Hanson and Katie Youngberg for half of the games. The fact they were missing in the lineup made the Thunder give other players more playing time.

“In the end this trip is about finding out about who can play where at this level,” Rodd suggested. “It really gave us a picture of what we will have to do once the season starts next week.”

The Thunder opened with an 11-9 loss to Northland College in a game that saw the Thunder give up nine unearned runs. FDLTCC bounced back in game two with a 7-6 win over NDSCS of Wahpeton in extra innings. The first day ended with a 13-5 loss to Bottineau, North Dakota. The following day the Thunder opened with a 16-7 loss to top-ranked Anoka-Ramsey, a 6-2 loss to Minnesota West and finally an 8-7 loss to Vermilion.

“We certainly saw a lot of good things and we had leads in four of the six games from the start until fairly near the end,” Rodd remarked. “I didn’t like the number of errors we made, but I do like some of our offensive abilities.”

Leadoff hitter Rachel Sanda of Cloquet and Kassi Neary of Hill City both hit homeruns in the tournament. Hanson, of Esko, hit .571 in the four games she played, Neary had three doubles to go along with her homer and hit .471. Hunter Nemmers of Cloquet and Kari Palmi of Esko both were impressive at the plate as well.

Denise Rodd led the team in pitching with 18 strike outs on the weekend, but Youngberg, who only pitched 6 2/3 innings, struck out 13 players.

“Youngberg is a difference maker with her speed,” mentioned Rodd. “She is able to blow batters out with her fastball and this year she’s added a changeup. Denise (Rodd) gives us a strong #2 and Neary, Courtney Kruse and April Broneak as well as Nemmers can all throw.”

The Thunder finished with a .304 team batting average, but Rodd thinks that will improve when both Youngberg and Hanson are in the lineup full time.

“First of all I think our defense will be better just because we can add another glove when Youngberg moves to one of the corners,” explained Rodd. “Then when you put Hanson at the #3 spot and you can extend your stronger bats all the way to #6 in the lineup that will help. We do have some work to do with our bottom of the line up, but if we can find another hitter somewhere in that group it will go a long way towards helping us out.”

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com