More experience eventually leads to better results.

Van-Far at Paris Photo Gallery

Concerning hitting in softball, experience is the amount of pitches seen as Paris saw plenty and scored plenty early in a 15-5 five-inning win Wednesday at home against Van-Far. Three Lady Coyotes each finished with three RBI while Van-Far (0-3) had three underclassmen drive in runs.

Paris head coach Collin Huffman said the Lady Coyotes (2-4) recently had struggled with hitting into quick outs. Even during Wednesday’s victory, he said there were innings Paris didn’t score as much because the girls didn’t look at enough pitches, but the first two innings featured long at-bat after long at-bat.

“(On Tuesday) when we played North Shelby (14-4 loss), we were having decent at-bats, but we weren’t seeing enough pitches,” Huffman said. “I told them tonight, ‘If you see more pitches, you’re going to have better at-bats.’ Those girls were working seven- and eight-pitch at-bats and getting hits.”

Paris trailed after a half inning because of Trinity Skwirtz’s two-RBI single with two outs against Ava Crain, but it didn’t take long for the Lady Coyotes to respond. Sylvee Graupman, who finished 3-for-3 with three RBI, led off the game with a triple. Wendi Sutherland picked up two RBI on a single as part of her 3-for-4 day with three RBI, Knightlee Mitten plated two runs with a double and was 2-for-3 with three RBI, and Graupman brought home another run in her second at-bat of the inning.

Van-Far head coach Shaylen Bailey said the Lady Indians need consistency in several aspects of the game. Reeve Woodall walked five and allowed 13 hits in four innings as Van-Far still figures out its pitching situation as Dalana Gay stays indefinitely out with a hip injury.

“It’s just consistency (for Woodall) and not getting in her head, which is normal for most athletes,” Bailey said. “It’s consistency with the strike zone.”

Bailey said the three straight games Van-Far had scheduled for this week with South Callaway, Paris and the home opener Thursday against Eastern Missouri Conference foe Louisiana — before playing at 5 p.m. Monday at district foe Monroe City (4-2) — makes it harder to iron out the team. She said sophomore Makayla McCurdy is someone Van-Far will look to for pitching, but she needs time to build up stamina.

The defense is also still shaky, Bailey said, as the Lady Indians finished with four errors and could have been smoother at times in the field. 

“We had a couple of innings where errors got in our heads, and we just kept making those same mistakes,” Bailey said. “We’re trying to fix them.”

Paris had much speed to throw at the Lady Indians as Mitten and Sophia Crusha beat out infield hits in the second inning that built a 12-5 lead for the Lady Coyotes. Graupman split infielders on the left side to score another run, which Huffman said is mainly due to the threat of her speed.

“We just have a lot of speed, and it’s so important that you put the ball in play,” Huffman said. “When it’s on the ground and it’s in play, you never know what might happen. It makes those girls think, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s so fast’ and they rush it. Reaching on base is reaching on base, and I’ll take it any way I can get it.”

The hitting was at its best for Van-Far, however, with Skwirtz coming through in the first inning and then the Lady Indians climbing back in the game in the second inning. While down 7-2, freshmen Kenya Jones and Mylee Keller picked up RBI hits, with Keller’s being a double that brought home two runs. Carmen Wilburn singled to set up a first-and-third situation with one out.

Kennedy Ashenfelter had planned to rest her arm because Paris was in the middle of its own stretch of three games in as many days, facing North Shelby on Tuesday and district foe Knox County on Thursday prior to hosting district foe Bevier (2-2) at 5 p.m. Monday. Still, Ashenfelter and Huffman knew it was time to lock down the game, which she did for 3⅔ innings with five strikeouts, one hit and one walk.

“That’s because she is seasoned,” Huffman said. “This was a planned off-day for her, but she looked over at me when they started hitting the ball. I looked at her and am like, ‘What do you think?’ and she gave me the nod. I was like, ‘Hey, let’s be efficient and get it done quick’ and she did a great job.”

Crain is a freshman, Huffman said, so she is learning to pitch to the edges rather than the middle of the plate. This resulted in five runs scoring on three hits in Crain’s outing, but those runs were unearned due to six errors. 

Huffman said pitching in the middle of the plate shouldn’t be done with Van-Far’s hitters, and Bailey liked what she saw from her young bats that drove in runs.

“For them especially, it was a huge eye opener of, ‘Hey, I can do this,’” Bailey said. “Moving forward, I think they’re going to play a huge part in our lineup, and I hope they continue to hit the way they hit tonight.”