(Griswold) The Griswold Tiger softball team is aiming big this summer.
Coach Jody Rossell’s team is striving for a conference championship. “We fell short of that last year, but at the top of the conference we extremely competitive.” They finished behind Fremont-Mills and Sidney in the final standings, “We had three losses to Fremont-Mills by a combined total of four runs I believe and three losses to Sidney by a combined total of five runs.”
The lofty goals are for good reason. Last season they had only one upperclassman and still finished 3rd in the league. “We are returning a lot of valuable experience and didn’t lose any seniors last year. We are gaining a lot of talent with eight incoming 8th graders. We have a lot to be excited about.”
Considering their lineup was made up of primarily freshmen and sophomores last year, they appear poised to take a big step forward this year. “Quite a learning curve with learning confidence in the game and our defense and decision making. I think we improved a lot through the season last year, so I hope we can hit the ground running. We have a lot of girls that have put a lot of time in during the offseason.”
Starting pitcher Brenna Rossell struck out 100 batters last year while 8th graders Carley Milliken and Dakota Reynolds can also help in the circle. Another 8th grader looking to bring an immediate impact is catcher Whitney Pennock. At the plate, Haylee Pennock is coming off of a year in which she hit .379 with a team best 14 RBI. Anna Kelley was 2nd on the in both of those categories with a .364 average and 11 runs driven in. “I like what we are seeing in practice coming off the bat. Haylee Pennock and Anna Kelley were both really good hitters for us last year as well as Brenna Rossell. I think we are going to have more consistency throughout the lineup this year and that’s something I’m excited about.
Griswold will be very busy over the first two weeks of the season with only one night off sprinkled into the first 12 competition dates.
