Seven starting seniors will be lost to graduation, but Racers up for challenge
Newcastle Fast-Pitch (#12) finished the season with a loss to the Verdigris Cardinals (#5) at the Super Regionals last week.
Verdigris won the best of three series in two games, 14-3 and 6-5, on Thursday. The season ends for the Racers (26-11), and the Cardinals (26-3) continue to the State Playoffs to play Thursday against number 7-ranked Purcell (26-10).
Racers Head Coach Mike Crossley said, “We got double dipped. Verdigris is a talented ball club. Class 4A is awfully tough with good teams.”
Crossley said it is always beneficial if a team gets to host in the playoffs, but since the Racers were ranked number 12, they had to travel.
He said, “Playing on a field that you are used to can play in your favor, but they are good, too.”
Crossley said he is very proud of the girls.
“They could have easily given in after the first game. We came back the second game, fought hard and gave ourselves a chance to win, but it didn’t end in our favor,” Crossley said.
The coach said fast-pitch softball is not supposed to be easy.
“At times we made it look easy last year,” Crossley said. “Out of the last 10 State Tournaments, we’ve played in the finals four times. We’ve won three State Championships with different sets of girls. When you do that, it makes it look easy, but it’s not.”
Crossley said there are a lot of teams, their coaches and their girls working hard towards the same goals.
Several of the teams may have been readying for another chance at the Racers.
“We had a big bullseye on us being returning State Champs,” Crossley said. “You want that, but it does present a challenge. Teams want to beat you awfully bad.”
Regardless, the girls responded well, he said, and the Racers had another good season.
He said, “I was really proud of them.”
Newcastle loses seven seniors to graduation this year, and they were all starters.
Seniors are: Jacie Brooks, right fielder; Amy Campbell, center fielder; Vanessa Portillo, left fielder; Courtni Smith, Addison McCann, and Lexie Lovelace, all infielders; and Liliana Portillo, catcher.
Crossley said, “They are outstanding ball players, who are fun to be around.”
This year’s seniors won 116 ball games, or an average of 29 wins per year, in their four years as Racers. They also won a State Championship.
Five of the seniors have committed to playing college softball next year. They are: Courtni Smith and Addison McCann, who are going to Southwest Christian; and Liliana and Vanessa Portillo, and Lexie Lovelace, who are going to the University of Science and Arts in Chickasha.
Even with most of his starters graduating, Crossley maintains his optimism.
“We have younger girls who are working hard and they know the expectations. We’ll have returners at third base, and at the circle,” Crossley said. “We also have some junior high girls coming up who will have a chance to get on the field.
“I think we’ll have another ball club, but we have some work to do.
“We had two good groups, back-to-back, but we lost a lot of experience. It seems like that every year — always graduating good kids — but we work hard on their replacement.”
Crossley said it will be a challenge, but its just the type of challenge he and the players like.
Newcastle is still a Class 4A team at this time, and was supposed to be moving up to Class 5A; however, Crossley said it’s not certain that the move will be made. When this decision is made by the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Athletic Association, it will be reported.
The State Playoffs are today (Thursday) through Saturday at Devon Park in Oklahoma City, 2801 N.E. 50th. As noted, Verdigris takes on Purcell, Blanchard plays Miami, Tuttle take on Broken Bow, and Weatherford is pitted against Elk City.
