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Brentwood Press - DiscoveryBayPress_05.09.08 - Index

2B | THEPRESS.NET SPORTS MAY 9, 2008
Lions’ season a positional struggle
by Avi Burk
Staff Writer
It’s been a diffi cult year for the Liberty
softball team.
The team, which features just two seniors,
is extremely young and lacks varsity
experience. It was expected to struggle early
and improve steadily as the season wore
on and the girls grew into their new roles.
But the wins simply never came, and the
team heads into its fi nal week of the season
hoping to salvage some positives from
this largely disappointing campaign.
“It’s been a tough season,” admitted
head coach Rich Barrios. “We started out
the season playing good softball, but lost
our fi rst three preseason games. Then we
got ourselves onto a little bit of a roll and
had a very good Queen of the Mountain.
We’ve had some injuries, and we’re still very
young. And we haven’t had those opportunities
like we’ve had in years past where if
you lose a key player, you have somebody
else who has played that position either
long enough or well enough that they can
step up. But other teams have had the same
injuries, so that’s not an excuse.”
According to Barrios, the play hasn’t
been all bad, but the team hasn’t been able
to put together complete games, explaining
that in one game the team would hit
well but pitch and defend poorly, and in
the next game, the girls would play stal-
Photo by Richard Wisdom
Lady Lion shortstop Chrissy Sibbitt slides safely into third base during
Liberty’s 9-1 loss to Heritage last week. Sibbitt was an all-league selection
playing primarily at third base last season.
wart defense but fail to produce runs.
Part of the team’s struggles are attributable
to the Lady Lions’ three outfi elders
playing out of their natural positions.
They were pulled from other positions on
the diamond and taught to track down fl y
balls and throw through cutoff infi elders.
The transition from the infi eld to the outfi
eld has been most diffi cult for left fi elder
Kim O’Neill, who batted .427 and was a
fi rst-team All-BVAL selection as a fi rst
baseman last year, but has seen her batting
average dip below .200 this season.
“We’re taking girls who are basically
strictly infi elders and trying to make them
outfi elders,” said Barrios. “At the beginning
of the season, had you asked me if we
would be able to do that and be successful,
I really did think we could. But as the
season has progressed and we head into
our last three games, that hasn’t been the
case.”
Despite struggling in the win-loss column,
there have certainly been bright spots
on this year’s team. The Lady Lions have
continued to develop, and Barrios points
to the late-season improvement of catcher
Donni Martin and fi rst baseman Brooke
Edwards as prime examples.
Martin was initially pegged as an
outfi elder because of her strong arm and
outstanding speed, but struggled to learn
the position. She made the move behind
the dish four games ago and has done an
excellent job. Similarly, Edwards began
the year playing third base and batting in
the heart of the Lady Lion batting order,
but made the move to fi rst base midway
through the season. More recently, she
moved up to bat in the leadoff spot, a role
that she’s thrived in.
Barrios was also quick to point out
the outstanding effort that junior pitcher
Shelbie Raposa has put in this year, despite
the team’s struggles.
“She’s been our pitcher the last three
years, and I really take my hat off to her,”
said Barrios. “She’s pitched some outstanding
games and either we haven’t scored any
runs for her or we haven’t played good defense,
and she continues to battle and work
hard.”
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