Coming off of last year’s very successful season, which saw the Lady Horns Fast Pitch Softball team make the 3A State tournament (going 32-8), Longtime Chisholm Coach Kevin Burns has high hopes for this year’s team.
“We are 17-10 so far this year (Editor: as of 9/14), mostly due to a mix of young and experienced players. We graduated 4 very good seniors off of last year’s team, and have some Jr’s starting for the first time. We are all learning how to play together, and want to try to make it back to the State Tournament this year,” says Coach Burns. We have a great group of Seniors, like MacKensie Killen, Emma Marlatt, Paden Pasby and Nicole Watkins, who have provided great leadership this year.
The team relies heavily on staff ace, junior Macie Andrews. Macie has started for the Lady Horns since her freshman year and has developed into an excellent pitcher and shortstop for this year’s squad. Not only does she strike batters out at an exceptional rate (75 K’s in 55 innings so far) she has a “really positive, bubbly attitude, is a hard worker, a good student and just an all-around great kid to coach” according to Coach Burns.
Senior Ally Meek is also a key contributor in Center Field. Coach Burns is especially proud of Ally, as she had shoulder surgery during her freshman year that sidelined her for most of her freshman and sophomore seasons. Through hard work and rehab, she has battled back, got herself healthy and is a valuable and productive member of the team.
Since the print edition of this story ran, Coach Burns updated us on the team: “We tied with Perry with a district record of 10-2, but they won the tiebreaker. We were 23-1 overall. We went to Comanche for regionals and made the championship game before losing a game that was close through 6 innings. Three of our lady horns are playing in the the Tri-County All Conference game tonight (Emma Marlett, Ally Meek and Macie Andrews).” Coach Burns is extremely proud of all his girls.
