Coach believes RHS softball much improved this year
It’s not surprising that Coach Brandy Nuyt Trimble had a positive outlook about her Russellville Lady Panthers the day after Tuesday’s 17-1 drubbing of Fort Campbell on the road. More significant is that she bases much of her optimism on how her second RHS softball season started—a 9-2 loss at Bowling Green, which is good at every sport it plays.
“Our defense was so much better than it was last year. We showed that our fundamental have improved a lot since the start of last year,” says Trimble, who was one of Logan County’s best ever softball players during her high school years.
“We’re very young and we don’t have much depth,” she said. “Still I think we are going to be better. I believe 10 wins is a reasonable goal. That doesn’t sound like much, but when you consider the past…”
Her optimism was reinforced in grand style Thursday when the Lady Panthers romped over Todd Central 10-1. “It was the program’s first district win since 2006,” said Russellville Athletic Director Calvin Head. Head knows RHS softball well, since he was the Lady Rebel softball coach through last spring. His former assistant, Leigh Bristow, is now in charge of the Todd program.
Russellville softball has suffered through tough times. Over the last eight years under four different coaches, RHS has gone 16-171, which computes to almost 11 losses for each win. After veteran coach Tom Thompson’s final team went 9-16 in 2006, teams coached by Pat Kemp, Vernonica Johnson, Greg Meacham and Trimble have won no more than four games in a single season. The 2012 team went 0-32.
The freshmen on that winless team should be seniors now, but the only 2015 Lady Panther senior is second baseman Rachel Fisher, who wasn’t on the team then. And two key players from the 2013 team, Macy Meacham and Brea Collins, are now in their second year as starters for Logan County as a sophomore and seventh grader, respectively. Samantha Pomerin, a freshman three years ago, led Trimble’s team in RBIs last year but her family moved away during the offseason.
Still that 2012 team was even younger, and five players from that squad are starters on the current squad. They are junior first baseman Johnea Pendleton and four sophomores, pitcher Tara Gilbert, catcher Tiffany Gray, shortstop Cierra Collins and third baseman Allison McDaniel. All of them have been on the varsity at least four seasons, and none of them are seniors.
Other starters are sophomore Malynn Ray in centerfield, eighth grader Taryn Gray in left, and either Tonisha Hampton or fellow eighth grader Brooklyn Ray in right.
Other members of the team are sophomores Mateah Black, Addie Hendley and Madison Keezel, freshmen Kayeleena Duncan and MyKayla Merrell, and eighth grader Elly Myers.
“Five of the 16 girls didn’t play last year, so they’ve got a lot to learn,” Trimble notes.
In the loss to Bowling Green, Fisher drove in Malynn Ray and Collins doubled in TarynRay.
Tara Gilbert—the team’s most experienced player with her high school years and summer travel ball at a high level combined—had a tremendous game in the romp at the army base Tuesday. She hurled 13 strikeouts in five innings, leaving only two other outs by Lady Falcons. Fort Campbell managed only one hit, that in the first inning. On offense, Gilbert reached base on four of five plate appearances. And by the way, she hit a grand slam, bringing home the Ray sisters and Collins in the process,
Collins scored five runs with Fisher and Malynn Ray scoring three each and Gilbert and Brooklyn Ray two each.
Jessie Baker returns as an RHS assistant coach, and they are joined this year by Trimble's sister, Amanda Nuyt Hampton, who also was an excellent player in high school and college.
The Lady Cougars are scheduled to play a varsity doubleheader against Monroe County Friday on Russellville’s field, which has undergone a great deal of work this year to improve the playing area.
Two wins in their first three games, including a 1-0 record in district play, makes Coach Trimble’s hopes for double-figure wins seem more than wishful thinking.