Warming up fast

By TRAVIS METCALF

TAHLEQUAH DAILY PRESS August 06, 2008 09:16 am

— Former Sequoyah High School athletes Lorin Hammer and Angel Goodrich were staples in many of the sports Sequoyah has to offer.
The Lady Indian fast-pitch softball team was no exception and though Hammer and Goodrich were the only two losses for the softball team this season, they are a going to be difficult to replace.
“Lorin Hammer is going to be harder to replace,” Lady Indians coach Jeff Turtle said. “She led us in everything offensively. They both are going to be real tough to replace.”
So, Tuesday evening’s scrimmages with Vian and Muskogee was spent looking for those replacements and he hopes Caitlin Dry and Lindsey Hammer can pick up the slack.
He is also optimistic about Megan Teehee, Haylee Beck and pitcher Dee Adair, which started during the scrimmages.
Turtle doesn’t call this a youthful team, though he doesn’t have a single senior on his team. Most of them are juniors and have been playing for the Lady Indians since they were freshman.
“Not anymore,” Turtle said. “I did when they were sophomores and freshmen but you can’t say that anymore because they play 40 games a season so they’ve played 80 games up to now. The experience is there.”
The Lady Indians start the season with back to back home games starting Aug. 12 against Oktaha and then Aug. 13 against Keys. Their first road game is at Westville on Aug. 14.
On Aug. 22-23 they will be at the Broken Arrow Tournament then have the Westville Tournament on Aug. 27-28 and have the Hall of Fame Shootout on Aug. 29-30.
They also have the Sequoyah Tournament on Sept. 17-18.
“This is the toughest schedule we’ve had,” Turtle said. “It’s tough for our class.”
The final numbers aren’t in, but as of Tuesday’s scrimmage, the Lady Indians have around 25 players out for this year’s team.
They will have two more scrimmages before the regular season starts with a scrimmage against Stilwell and Roland on Thursday and at Owasso on Saturday.
“Hopefully these scrimmages will tell us where we are,” Turtle said. “We’ll see what we need to work. We’re going to be seeing tough pitching.”

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