Tia McAlister thinks she knows a thing or two about pressure.
It was the Emporia High senior’s choice to be a pitcher when she began playing softball, and pressure kind of goes with the territory.
But, McAlister knows she’s about to get a dose of pressure like she’s never experienced before as the EHS Lady Spartans prepare for their 2007 softball season, since it is McAlister who most likely will be called upon to fill the No. 1 pitching duties, replacing last year’s top starter, Casey Speer.
“I’ve always had pressure being a pitcher, but this year, there’s a lot more,” McAlister said. “I just hope I don’t let it get to me.”
McAlister proved at times last year why she is the front-runner for the No. 1 job this season. Even though Emporia struggled to a 5-15 overall record, McAlister came up big in a Regional finals loss to Salina South at the end of the season when she teamed with Speer to allow only four hits in the 1-0 setback.
It’s no secret, then, EHS coach Ray Owens expects McAlister to take control as his ace this season.
“I hope she becomes my go-to girl,” Owens said. “She’s doing a good job. We’ll have to see how she does when we step up against competition. She’s doing a good job in practice and throwing well and working hard, but we’ll see what happens when we play somebody.”
It won’t all be on McAlister to turn Emporia High’s fortunes around this season though. The Lady Spartans appear to have some quality infield talent with three returning starters.
However, big questions remain as to who will be in the outfield, as each position is expected to filled by a new player this season because of graduation losses.
“We’ve just got to improve all around in general,” Owens said. “I think we’re going to be a lot faster this year with more speed, which will help score runs if we hit the ball. Our pitching should be pretty good this year. Our outfield has got to improve.”
Working behind the pitching circle will be three seniors with plenty of experience in Brendy Muninger at third, McKenzie Cinelli at shortstop and Tiffany Chalupa at second.
“We’ll look to them (the seniors) to help us out a lot and make sure we know what we’re doing out there,” sophomore Hilary Heinrichs said. “They just have to be the senior leaders that they are.”
The only real questions on the infield are at catcher and first base. The graduation of Danielle Saylor-Perkins at first and Melissa Crawford at catcher leaves two voids previously filled by two all-league caliber players.
Sophomore Lexi Hileman was expected to battle for playing time at catcher, but a knee injury in a Sub-State basketball game forced her to move to first. That left the situation at catcher even cloudier, and Owens said it was still unclear who would work there. He did, however, say Muninger could move to catcher if it was needed.
Overall, though, Owens said “the infield should be pretty solid.”
The outfield is easily Owens’ biggest concern, as the Lady Spartans will unveil an entirely new look once the season starts.
“If we had to play tomorrow, we’d start a freshman, sophomore and a junior in the outfield,” Owens said. “It’s up in the air. We’re looking for some people that can get after the ball. I think we ought to have more speed out there.”
Getting it all started in the pitching circle will be McAlister, and she is expected to be joined by Heinrichs and freshmen Hannah Lynch and Cassandra Huth — a group Owens said he was cautiously optimistic about this season despite youthfulness.
The biggest thing for the Lady Spartans this year, Heinrichs said, was playing better from the start and improving as the season went on.
“I think we just need to work a lot on our defensive fielding and getting better,” Heinrichs said. “We played probably our best softball toward the end of the season. We have a pretty big gap between our seniors and underclassmen, so we’re going to have to get a lot of experience early. We’ll have to grow up fast.”
Emporia’s first game is a road game against Washburn Rural at 4 p.m. next Friday. The first home game will be on April 6 against Topeka West.