BRISTOL — The Bristol Eastern Lancers softball team have picked up right where they left off last season as their success in the batters box has put a lot of pressure on opposing pitchers and their defenses.
In their latest victory, the Lancers defeated Manchester 20-6 to improve to 7-1 and to push their win streak to seven. The victory becomes the sixth win for Bristol Eastern where they have scored at least 14 runs in a game.
Bristol Eastern coach Tyler Catlin said the offense is just clicking at the moment and his team is taking good approaches at the plate. He said they’ve been getting good hitter counts, getting the barrel on the barrel on the ball and making good contact.
“We left the yard a few times,” Catlin said. “Emily Valentine and Desiree Nickerson, Desiree hit a grand slam against Sacred Heart Academy yesterday and then again today against Manchester she hit an absolute bomb and Emily had a nice shot yesterday as well in that SHA comeback.”
Catlin said with the players that returned and the additions to the team he knew the Lancers would be successful. He said the experience of the team this season was a recipe for success.
“I've had Grace Browne and Emily Valentine since they were freshmen. This is their third year as starters. They're very proven, veteran talents,” Catlin said. “Hailey Beebe is doing a great job pitching and currently leading the team in average. She's hitting the ball great. Our seniors have done a great job leading these kids. Makayla Antunes, she's doing a great job at the plate. She's had some clutch, two out RBI hits in these past two games against Sacred Heart Academy and today against Manchester that really helped us. Everybody's contributing, which is wonderful.”
Despite the Lancers winning seven straight it hasn’t been in just dominating fashion like the amount of runs would attest. During the SHA game on Tuesday, the Lancers were down 12-4 heading into the bottom of the seventh.
The Lancers managed to get their bats rolling and scored ten runs in the final inning to defeat SHA 14-12.
Catlin said the team showed their fight in the performance against SHA.
He said offensively he's not concerned with the team’s ability. He said there’s still room for the team to grow in other areas, but batting will take care of itself.
“The offense isn't really my concern, especially at this given time. I knew we were going to put together some good runs. I knew one to nine we were going to be a tough out anywhere in our batting order,” Catlin said. “I do look in the mirror. We are 7-1, but there's definitely plenty of areas that we need to improve especially with the defense and in instincts of the game.”
He said knowing where to be, knowing what cuts to make and where to go on their cuts are some of the areas that need improvement.
“We beat Manchester pretty good today, but we made a handful of errors and that's not going to fly when we get into a very tough schedule next week.” he said. “It's going to be a tough week next week and we can't play like that. We can't out slug every game. We're going to have to tighten up with our defense.”
Next week, the Lancers will face a red hot Middletown team twice on Monday and Friday, who are 6-0 and have only given up three runs all season. Bristol Eastern will also face Plainville on Wednesday and city-rival Bristol Central on Thursday for a tough two-day run.
