Young team looks to surprise: Lady Indians to rely on youth

The Comanche softball team will be looking to fill some holes and will be relying on some young players to fill those holes after graduating several seniors last year.

This year’s squad has just two seniors - Caity Blair and Maddy Hare - and has just three upperclassmen returning as starters with Blair joined by juniors Gracee Miller and Brighton O’Connor.

Sophomores Raylee Chaney and Mykayla Slovak bring the returning starters up to five.

“We’re going to be very young,” said Aaron Minor, head coach. “We have those three that are either a senior or junior and then we have five or six spots to fill.”

One key position he will be looking to fill will be at pitcher. He lost his two pitchers - Kinley Rendon and Brooklyn Gill - to graduation last year.

“Three of our pitchers are freshmen and one is a sophomore, but she didn’t play last year, so she’s like a freshman in the circle, too,” Minor said. “We’re just young.”

Minor said as of right now as the regular season opens next week that Kamrey Rendon and Jentry Whaley have gotten the bulk of the work on the mound, but Lexie Feldman and Caity Ramsey have seen action as well.

Regardless, they will have an experienced catcher in Slovak.

“She’s probably one of the best catchers in the area,” Minor said. “She’s got a great arm. She’s thrown out six or seven runners (in summer league play).”

The left side of the infield should be solid with O’Connor at third base and Miller at shortstop. Miller played some in the outfield last year, but Minor thinks she will be settled in at shortstop this season.

O’Connor was first-team all-district at third base last season and Miller was second-team all-district. Chaney made first-team all-district and was named the district’s Newcomer of the Year.

After those spots, Minor said who will play where is still uncertain.

“We could be halfway through the season before we know,” Minor said. “As far as first or second goes and the outfield, we just don’t know, yet.”

Summer league play has shown, though, the Lady Indians are more than capable of generating some offense.

“I would say - I hate to jinx it - that right now, overall, that we are better one to nine in the order than we have been in the past few years,” Minor said. “Not individually, but overall as a team.”

Chaney is more than likely going to hit leadoff. Minor said as she can do several things at the plate in order to get on base.

And those summer league games played in Marlow have allowed his team to get some much-needed field time playing against other schools.

“I think it has been a good experience, especially more so this year because we have so many young ones,” Minor said. “So getting them out there on a high school field against high school players has allowed them to shake off some nerves. Plus, all those in the circle getting experience against high school batters have been very valuable this summer.”

There will not be many opportunities to see the Lady Indians at home this season. They have just five home games plus the Comanche Festival. Otherwise, they will be on the road for several tournaments and district games.

“That’s nothing new for us,” Minor said. “So, yeah, we’re ready for that sort of thing.”

The first home game will be Aug. 23 against district rival Kingston. There will also be home games against Lindsay (Aug. 30), Marietta (Sept. 7), Davis (Sept. 13) and Riverside (Sept. 20). All will be district games.

The other district team is Community Christian. The Lady Indians will travel there on Aug. 16. The Comanche Festival will be Sept. 16-18.

They will be participating in scrimmages at Hines Park in Duncan today (Thursday), starting off with a game against Velma-Alma at 9:30 a.m. and then playing Lawton High at noon.