HOME AWAY FROM HOME: The HRV softball team played its home opener in The Dalles Monday due to weather and field conditions in Hood River. The Eagles lost to Gresham 6-2. Above, Zoe Munn takes a swing.
HOME AWAY FROM HOME: The HRV softball team played its home opener in The Dalles Monday due to weather and field conditions in Hood River. The Eagles lost to Gresham 6-2. Above, Zoe Munn takes a swing.
Last year’s HRV softball team had an incredibly young roster, boasting just one senior and two juniors, and while this year’s squad only has four players from the class of 2017, the juniors and sophomores on the team are older, wiser, and ready to build on last year’s efforts.
“The girls went out this summer and got better and the core group has taken the opportunity to be a better team… our expectations are to improve and be a better team than last year,” said Eric Keller, who returns for his seventh season as varsity head coach.
In 2016, the Eagles finished with a 10-15 record and a No. 14 ranking, playing in one of the most competitive, if not the most competitive conference in 5A softball. They fell just short of a play-in game.
Keller said things in the Columbia River Conference likely won’t get any easier this season and will take a lot of effort from the Eagles if they are to take perennial conference champion Pendleton off their throne. The Bucks have won the CRC title every year except 2014, when they shared it with the Eagles. That was also the last year HRV qualified for the playoffs.
“The CRC has historically been a very competitive league and I don’t expect it to diminish this season,” he noted.
Keller will need contributions from everyone to break that streak this season, but especially from those aforementioned core players like senior Makena Zeller, juniors Kaylin Winans, Zoe Munn, and Hannah McNerney, and sophomores Lauren Decker and Haylee Baker. Munn, who plays catcher and is one of the most prolific hitters on the team, was named to All-State her freshman and sophomore years and will be relied on heavily this season.
Getting in practice time for all players has been a challenge this season due to the weather and field conditions the News highlighted in a story in the March 11 issue, with Keller noting, “There’s only so much they can get done in a gym and a batting cage.”
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The weather has been so bad that the Eagles were forced to play in the drier The Dalles for their Monday home opener against the 6A Gresham Gophers. A light rain sprinkled the players, but the game went on. The Eagles went toe-to-toe with the Gophers, Keller said, and were tied 2-2 until the fifth-inning when Gresham had a three-run outburst on their way to a 6-2 victory.
Gresham only had one more hit than HRV, but capitalized on six Eagle errors in the game. McNerney had three hits in three at-bats and was responsible for both of the team’s two RBIs. Decker and Grace Miller were the two runs for the Eagles, scoring in the third and first innings, respectively. Winans pitched a complete game for HRV, striking out four batters.
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The weather has continued to make a mess of things this week, with Tuesday’s game at Sam Barlow getting bumped to Saturday at Sandy (still against Sam Barlow). HRV was supposed to host Wilsonville at Westside Thursday at 4:30 p.m., but the date and/or location of that game could also change due to the weather and/or field conditions.
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