Southmont softball is used to winning. The Mounties, a season ago were young with a plethora of sophomores surrounding a handful of seniors in Dara Watson, Chelsea Veatch, Brady Spencer, and Kali Todd. The 2023 Mounties went 9-17 on the season and will return six of their nine starters for 2024 as they look to get back to their winning ways. Those sophomores from a year ago are now juniors and South will be much more experienced.
Anna Stokes, Jenna Grino, Mallory Mason, Catie Himes, along with Kyndale Rice will all be juniors and all played a role a season ago. The long senior for South this season will be Kami Dininus. Fellow juniors Haley Scott, Jayden Dagley, and sophomore Kenzie Douglas will round out the starting lineup for the Mounties.
A year ago South continued to slug the ball with a .369 team average. Mason batted .493, Grino .468, Rice .452. Himes .345, Stokes .322, and Dinius .371.
“Despite our youth, Dinius, Mason, Stokes, and Grino will enter the season as third-year starters and Rice and Himes as second-year starters so we have experience,” Southmont coach Dan Taylor said. “We think we are still a year away from being a really dominant team like we have been in the past, but we expect to better this year as all of these girls have another year of experience under their belts.”
A year ago offensively the Mounties averaged over eight runs a game and used their speed on the base paths to steal bases and created plenty of scoring opportunities for their great hitters. In 26 games, Southmont stole 77 bases.
In the circle, Rice was the Mounties No. 1 a year ago and will be again this spring. However this version of Rice should look different as a season ago, she pitched on a torn meniscus for a majority of the season. Rice was also taxed by pitching 109.1 of the 146.2 total innings for the Mounties a year ago. Taylor expects a much better version of his ace this season.
“We expect Kyndale to continue to improve in the circle,” he said. “In addition, our #2 and #3 pitchers last year struggled, and that meant that Kyndale had to throw more innings than we would like. Kyndale was a very good pitcher when she was rested last year. But we were forced to pitch her a lot last year without rest. This year, Freshman Sammie Crosby, Junior Haley Scott, and Freshman Kenzie Clate should help us be better in relief and our #2 starting role Pitching and defense were our biggest problems last year. A healthy Kyndale Rice and an improved group of pitchers should make a big difference for us.”
Southmont will open their 2024 season when they return from spring break. Their first game is slated for Tuesday, April 2 when they host Attica. That Friday they’ll host Greencastle before hosting the first annual Mountie Softball Invite on Saturday when they welcome Seeger, Eminence, and South Putnam for a 4-team tournament.
