Year three for Calvary softball looks bright

It's natural for any new high school program to go struggle at first. And Calvary Lutheran's softball team was no exception.

Founded in 2015, the team took shape because of the efforts of travel players and their parents who wanted to play high school softball too. The Lions went 3-9 that first year with some close wins and a few blowout losses, including a 10-0 loss to Iberia in late September, and bowed out in the first round of districts to Van Buren.

The team hasn't been shut out since, and Calvary took that close-game luck into its own hands last year under Denice Burks. Four of the Lions' six losses came by one or two runs, but they outscored opponents a mind-boggling 127-10 in 10 wins, more than half of which were shutouts.

Despite a second-straight first-round loss in districts, this time to to St. Elizabeth, the young program has good reason to look to 2016 with excitement. And they are young. Amanda Braun, who catches and plays at second base, is the team's only senior on a roster of 14.

"Pretty excited about the season and this group that we have," Burks said. "We're wanting to go further than we did last year, we should have gone further than we did last year."

The Lions beat St. Elizabeth soundly at the start of the season, 12-0, but the Lady Hornets took the game that mattered 6-5. Calvary Lutheran will open its 2017 season against the team that cut last season short, at home today against St. Elizabeth at 10 a.m. The Lions will follow with Vienna at 2 p.m, a program Burks said likes to run, so the team has been putting extra work into throws down to second to prevent steals.

Two of the team's four juniors, Haley Braun and Presley Welch, will hurl from the circle this year.

"They both have very good movement pitches, and some zip," Burks said. "Curve, screw, rise, drop."

Amanda Braun, who plays second base normally and backup catcher on her travel team, said she and Haley formed a nucleus that helped the team take shape.

"Me and Haley came in, and since I'm a catcher, that was really helpful to have a catcher and a pitcher," Braun said. "Because that's a big part of softball, so build from the bottom and go up."

That bottom-up approach has been effective in a short amount of time. Ten players are split between a handful of travel programs, and Braun and Burks both spoke about players took it upon themselves to help teammates correct small errors. That allows Burks the freedom to spend more time with individual players without worrying about being everywhere at once.

That teamwork, and the greater frequency of high school practices compared to travel ball practices, brings out what Braun called a camaraderie. That team chemistry is aided by decreased levels of pressure than you'd find in a travel ball dugout, and manifests itself in softball's usual ways: inventive nicknames, team cheers and inside jokes that can only come from spending hours together.

Calvary Lutheran will also present an interesting matchup challenge for opponents at the plate: the team has no left-handed hitters, and the offense isn't weighted in one or three bats. It's hard for a team to score eight or more runs 10 different times without a majority of the line-up consistently reaching base.

"I'd say, senior year, it would be great to go as far as we possibly can," Braun said. "We have a great group of girls that I think we could be able to do it. So I'd like to see how far we can get."