FALL PREVIEW: Park Hill South Softball

Park Hill South softball comes back in 2012 with its core from a 2011 team that went 14-13 overall and 8-4 in conference play. While there are certainly some of the same faces on the diamond for the Panthers this season, they hope the results will exceed last season’s and meet the higher expectations that come with one more year of development.

“We’re very experienced, a lot of varsity experience returning,” head coach Josh Walker said. “I would also say the chemistry wasn’t as good last year as it is this year.”

Returning for the Panthers are a number of varsity letter winners including Jessica Lee, Sarah Nelson, Madison Price, and Alyx Hagen. Sydney Minnis, Courtney Jackson, and Kylie DeClue will contribute as well. They will lean early on their most experienced players in Courtney Todd, Courtney Land, Mallory Land, and Jordin Woodward, a group Walker says he’ll use to build around with a number of talented players.

“I’m going to look for those four to lead us,” Walker said. “We’re got some speed we can put throughout the order and a couple younger players who could easily start varsity.”

The one thing Park Hill South needs to bring it all together is strong and consistent pitching. They could see that from several different contributors as four freshmen saw varsity time in the ring last year. Price, Hagen, and Jackson along with Julia Switlik all bring a certain strength to the Panther rotation, which Walker says could be used at anytime.

“If our pitching comes through we’ve got a shot. They all bring something to the table and are very good at what they bring. They are so different, I can see them all doing something for the varsity this year,” Walker said. “It’s good for situational use and matchups, but we’re not going to overcoach and do things when we don’t need to. If someone is on a role we’re going to go with them.”

Offensively, the Panthers struggled with consistency last year; something Walker believes will have developed and matured with one more year of practice.

“We didn’t have all of our hitters on at the same time last year,” Walker said. “We just weren’t consistent enough. I think we have a better shot at that this year.”

Truman and Park Hill are considered the conference favorites in the eyes of the Panthers. That is, until someone knocks them off, which they hope to be able to compete against and accomplish. They jump start the season with the Joplin Tournament where they’ll play several high quality teams they went 2-3 against last year.

Fall Roundup: Aug. 22 - Aug. 27

Park Hill South Softball
.... went 3-2 in their season opening tournament last weekend in Joplin. They were able to score victories against Bartlesville (9-3) and Neosho twice (12-11, 7-5). They were beaten by McDonald County (2-0) and Carl Junction (5-2). Coach Josh Walker's team was able to make contact and hit the ball pretty well with an overall batting average over .330, but Walker said his teams fielding was an area which needed to improve on. They'll play at Raytown and Winnetonka this week.
 
Park Hill Girls Tennis
The Park Hill girls tennis team started the season off with a 6-3 victory of Liberty last week. Led by top player Suzanne Barth, the number one Lady Trojan in singles defeated Kristen Filardo with an impressive 10-2 before teaming up with doubles partner Anna Karasiewicz to beat Filardo and Cassidy Paul 10-4. They were unable to maintain the hot start against Pembroke Hill as they suffered an 8-1 loss in a poor performance for Park Hill. Barth was able to edge out Pembroke's McCray 10-8 in the top doubles matchup, but McCray was able to exact revenge in doubles when she and teammate Czerwinski downed Barth and Karasiewicz 10-4. They'll host St. Theresa's Academy Thursday in their only scheduled match of the week.

Park Hill Girls Golf
Park Hill girls golf saw high quality results in their first week of the 2011 season. Placing sixth at the Liberty Invitational, Anna Kloeppel and Adrianna Elliott tie for 16th place while Bailey Warlen just a few places behind in 23rd. They capped off their week with a 51 stroke win over Platte County when they shot a team score of 193 compared to the Pirates 244. Adrianna Elliott led Park Hill with a score of 45. They play at Staley followed by a match at Winnetonka and Oak Park this week.

Park Hill South Girls Tennis
Lady Panthers tennis began their season with a 7-2 win over Blue Springs. Top singles player Adele Royle defeated the Wildcats top player with a quick 8-0 victory. Marie Gehrke followed it up with an 8-3 win over Blue Springs number two player. Royle and Gehrke reaffirmed their solid play with an 8-0 victory in their doubles match. They host Liberty and Oak Park in separate matches this week.

Park Hill South Girls Golf
Park Hill South placed third in the large field of 23 teams at the Liberty Invitational last week. Junior Lindsey Gile placed fifth while senior Kelli Mulligan placed ninth out of 89 players. Later in the week they defeated St. Joe Central with a team score of 207 to Central's 220. Gile was a medalist with a score of 46 just eight over par.

SOFTBALL PREVIEW: Park Hill South ready to win on day one

Day one. Minute one. That’s when coach Josh Walker’s players started talking about winning their conference and district titles. After a 19-9 Park Hill South softball team finished one game behind Belton for a second place finish in conference and a heartbreaking 13 inning 1-0 loss to Truman in the district championship, there’s no doubt where the Panthers have set their goals for the 2011 season.

“We had a very good season, but it left us a little hungry,” Walker said. “We’ve got a great core of juniors and seniors coming back and we should be ok.”

South returns five starters with considerable talent and experience. Sophomore shortstop Courtney Todd, junior third baseman Mallory Land, senior leftfielder Brandi Weymuth, junior centerfielder Courtney Land, and senior rightfielder Kaleigh Burlington return for what develops as a team with a strong outfield and left side both offensively and defensively. Letterwinner Jessica Lee will look to take over the reins at catcher while Madison McDowell and Jordan Woodworth battle for the starting role at first play. Senior transfer Corinne Listenbee will be a solid presence at second. Makala Walker looks to be the favorite to take over the pitching duties for South ahead of four freshman pitchers who will compete to un-seed her.

Overall, the Panthers have a flexible lineup of athletes which will come in handy if the unfortunate case of injuries strike the team during the course of the season.

“We only have one girl that doesn’t play multiple positions,” Walker said. “If someone goes down to injuries, we’ll be able to fill-in and not miss a beat.”

Walker expects the defense and hitting to be there for his team based on the talent coming back from last season. This will be a team that will rarely make defensive errors and will just as unlikely to find themselves short on runs, which leaves a lot up to how well the pitching goes.

“Defense and hitting are supposed to be our strong suits,” Walker said. “I think both will be there, we just have to make sure the pitching is there. That’s the ultimate thing.”

With a strong schedule of conference competition, Walker knows it will be a tough road towards accomplishing their goals, but is impressed with the attitude his players have brought into the season, especially from his veterans.

“They’re just go getters and many have been playing varsity since they were freshman,” Walker said. “They’re taking it on themselves and taking ownership of it (their goals) before I even was able to say something about it.”

South will find out real quick what kind of team they have as they kick the season off at the Joplin Tournament against Bartlesville (Oklahoma), Carl Junction, and Neosho, two teams of which they’ve never beaten. Nonetheless, the Panthers hope they’re in a position come October to execute on the goals they’ve established so early in this 2011 season.

PH, PHS softball teams both end up and down seasons with something to be proud of

To say Park Hill and Park Hill South’s softball teams seasons’ were up and down would be an understatement. Park Hill started their season with a huge victory at Oak Park, an opponent they hadn’t beaten in over a decade. But after that, they played decently before falling into a deep slump which included a nine game losing streak.

On the other side of the hill, Park Hill South started out slow with conference losses to Oak Park and Truman. Coach Josh Walker had told his team to just look ahead to districts, but after storming back, they beat Winnetonka two weeks ago on the heels of pitcher Jessica McCoy’s one-hitter to claim the school’s first conference championship in softball.

Two teams, two different seasons, but they came together this past weekend in the district semi-finals. #1 Park Hill South facing off against #4 Park Hill, who last week beat #3 St. Theresa’s to advance when Bethany Sullinger hit a walk-off solo homerun in the seventh to break a 0-0 tie.

After losing both games to South during the season, the Trojans came into the game as a slight underdog. The Trojans struck first in the bottom of the second when . South quickly struck back with a run of their own to tie it up at 1-1.

Michele Rupard hit a solo homerun in the top of the 7th to make the score 3-1. The Panthers added a run in the bottom of the 9th, leaving her at third. But Park Hill’s Kati Snodgrass struck out the next two batters to complete the upset.

“We’ve always had one player step up every game and they’re starting to believe,” Park Hill coach Stuart Sullinger said after his team’s semi-final victory. “It’s incredible to be in this situation and playing for a district title.”

“We had a great year in winning conference and setting a team record for wins,” South coach Josh Walker said on his team’s season.

Park Hill went on to play #2 Staley in the district championship, but fell short to the Falcons as the game went into extra innings and the Falcons won with a game winning walk-off homerun in the ninth inning.

Panthers Softball Team Looks to Pivotal Week

Park Hill South at 10-9 is in the middle of a tough stretch of games this week which include matchups against Truman, Park Hill, Kearney, and Oak Park. With the district tournament next week, these last games will determine a conference champion and help build momentum going into the postseason. After early conference losses to Truman and Oak Park, Coach Josh Walker didn’t think the conference title would be very attainable, but after a stretch of wins, they’ve made their way back into the conference race. Rematches with Truman, Park Hill, and Oak Park, all conference rivals, will go a long way in deciding this year’s champion.
To start off the season the Panthers’ strength was in their defense, but lately their bats have come alive in a string of games where they have double digit run totals. Pitcher Jessica McCoy has done her part by putting together solid performances all year and has an earned run average just below two.

On the defensive side, Val Pollan has been impressive in leftfield along with third baseman Alyssa Weatherly and Mallory Land who has stepped in as a freshman at catcher to replace Maci Fisher who went down with a PCL injury. Weatherly has also been tearing it up on offense behind outfielder Bailey Peterson, who leads off for the Panthers.

“I hate to use a clique, but it’s going to come down to pitching and defense,” Walker said.
The district tournament starts up next Wednesday, October 7th with the championship game being played on Saturday morning. Park Hill South will be looking to put together the strong defense from the beginning of the year with the solid hitting performances they’ve had of late to make a run at both the conference and district titles. As Coach Walker mentioned at the beginning of the year, and still holds true today with pivotal games fast approaching, “we’re looking to make some noise.”

Park Hill South softball team ready to 'make noise'

Park Hill South softball coach Josh Walker’s team is ready to take their game to another level this season. After a 13-14 season last year provided the program a good step forward from previous years, the Panthers are coming into this season with some high expectations.

“We’re very senior heavy with a lot of experience coming back." Walker said. A lot of our seniors have been starting since they were freshmen."

With such an experienced team returning, Walker is looking for the whole team to step up especially some seniors that have already been active thus far in practice including shortstop Paige Cockriel, outfielder Bailey Peterson, outfielder Jen Burnette, and 3rd basemen Alyssa Weatherly. Other players who will play an important role will be pitcher Jessica McCoy, 1st basemen Brandi Weymuth, outfielder Valerie Pollan, catcher Maci Fisher, 2nd basemen Emily McLain, and outfielder Jenna Disselhoff.

Key matchups for the Panthers include the traditionally successful Oak Park, back-to-back conference champions Winnetonka, and a senior-heavy Park Hill team. All will be tests for Park Hill South’s softball team, but Walker is confident his team can make some significant strides forward.

“We’re looking to make some noise this year," he said.