While they may have graduated seven seniors off of last year’s 26-win team, the 3rd year of Coach Chris Jensen’s Enid Pacer Softball team has not missed a beat. At the time of this writing, they are 18-5 and have their eyes set on winning the district and hosting postseason games.
“I can’t say enough about this year’s team,” said Coach Jensen, “we are young but really stepping it up. Our defense and pitching have really kept us in these tough, close games, and our hitting has really been a bit of a surprise. We are scoring a little more than we did last year.”
As usual in softball, it starts on the mound, where the Pacers turn first to freshman Gracie Combrink who is currently 10-2 in the circle. “Gracie gets a lot of strikeouts and can be dominating. She already has an above average fastball and a really good screwball. She also plays everywhere on the field, and we’ve been trying her out at leadoff this last week, and she’s really responded,” said Jensen. When Combrink needs a break, Jensen says he has faith in both Rylee Thedford and Andee Rader to help out the team. “Both Andee and Rylee are good pitchers, too. They are strike throwers, which lets our defense work. And since our defense is a strength, it’s a good thing for us.”
As far as hitting goes, the team looks to Palmer Pasby to knock the ball around the yard. “Palmer is our three-hole hitter and can really hit,” said Jensen, “she is over .500 on the year, has a couple of home runs, and is just really good. She’s also a really good catcher and infielder, and with her behind the plate, she keeps the other team honest. When you have some of these close games, the other coaches see her throwing down to second and think twice about running. Keeping them at first is a real plus.”
If there is one thing Coach Jensen would like to improve on, it’s base running. “I’d like to steal more bases,” he said, “a lot of that is about timing and getting a good jump. That (stealing bases) would really help us out this year.”
The future is bright for these Pacers, and it will be exciting to see if they can make it #alltheway this year.
