APSU Women’s Softball
Clarksville, TN – Austin Peay State University’s softball team will play its home-opening weekend this Saturday and Sunday, as it hosts the Austin Peay Spring Classic at Lady Govs Field.
Along with the Lady Govs, rounding out the classic field will be Ball State, Belmont, Cleveland State and Missouri-Kansas City.
“The coaching staff put together a great schedule this year and it’s not an easy competition,” Austin Peay softball coach Casey Dickson said. “So we need to win games and if we do lose it needs to be by one or two (runs). We don’t need to have these big deficits.”
“The mindset for the team is learning how to control our tempo, emotions and learn from what we went through last weekend,” Dickson said. “We played extremely well on Sunday and we told them that if they keep improving in that way we’re going to have a great season and not just a good season.
“I feel really good about the girls being receptive of the advice that the coaches were telling them from Saturday to Sunday, and you could see that not only in how they played but in the stats as well.” But one area that is key to see improvements in this weekend is in pitching.
“Our pitching definitely needs to improve,” Dickson said. “You’re going to have good days and bad days, but we need for our pitchers to have more good days.”
Freshman Taylor Mills picked up the Lady Govs lone win last weekend, but she wasn’t the only freshman to do well.
“We’re extremely pleased with Amanda De Vries coming in when she had her opportunity to catch,” Dickson said. “She showed great composure and control and got some runners stealing, and for awhile we’ve struggled in that category.
“You have to give some credit to some of the other girls that came in too, like Caitlyin (Anderson), Kayla (Davidson) and Mills. Lauren deCastro, we’re thrilled to death with her and we hope that she continues to help us out being a good offensive spark.”
Kristem Whitmire was another new old face who had a good weekend. She was redshirted in 2010 after suffering a shoulder injury prior to her arrival on campus in Summer 2009. “Kristin is consistent,” Dickson said. “It’s great to have shortstop come in as a freshman and make an impression at that position, that’s great to see.”
As for this weekend’s classic, games start 9:00am Saturday, with Belmont taking on Ball State. Austin Peay’s first game Saturday is against Cleveland State, 1:00pm, with a game versus Missouri-Kansas City at 5:00pm to wrap up Day 1.
On Sunday games begin at 9:00am, with the Lady Govs playing the final two games of the classic – Ball State, at 3:00pm – and Belmont, at 5:00pm.
For full classic matchups and start times, go to www.letsgopeay.com .
