Van-Far will have plenty of options on the softball field this year.

Van-Far Summer Softball Photo Gallery

The Lady Indians played in their first summer scrimmage games on June 5 at Westran High School in Huntsville, winning 9-3 against Milan and losing 7-1 to Fayette and 9-4 to Westran. They have an increase of 27 players this season, including 12 freshmen, according to head coach Shaylen Bailey.

Bailey also has a new assistant on her staff, Jayda Borgmeyer, so there was plenty of excitement from the new roster. 

“We have a lot of girls this year,” Bailey said. “We’re hoping to build them up as much as we can. Those (freshman) girls have just loved softball most of their life, and they’re excited to play for us.”

In Van-Far’s lone victory against Milan, returning players Elliott Utterback, Reeve Woodall and Kayla Heaton each had a RBI, with Heaton drawing three walks and scoring two runs. Mylee Keller had a RBI against Fayette. In the final game against Westran, Kenya Jones was 2-for-3 and Utterback had two walks and a hit.

But the big story was having Dalana Gay back in the circle and on the field after missing last season due to injury. Gay struck out the first three Milan batters she faced and finished with five strikeouts and one run allowed on one hit and one walk in two innings pitched. In the two other games, Gay struck out five and allowed three earned runs in five innings against Fayette and struck out two and allowed three earned runs in two innings against Westran.

“We’ve got Dalana Gay back on the mound, which is helping out a lot,” Bailey said. 

Bailey saw improvement already from her offense as it looks to be better than the 2.6 runs per game from a year ago. She said switching around players has led to better defense thus far. 

“Our batting and our baserunning was a lot more aggressive today,” Bailey said. “It had a lot more quality to it, which is what we’re expecting to see throughout the summer and hopefully when the season starts.”

Van-Far played more scrimmage games on Tuesday in Centralia, losing all four games. It lost 8-2 to North Callaway, 13-4 to Hallsville, 10-6 to Centralia and 10-2 to Silex. Gay had RBI in three of the games, going 4-6 with five RBI in that stretch and hitting a three-RBI home run against Hallsville

The Lady Indians still have junior varsity scrimmages in Centralia on June 19, and then varsity contests at Westran on June 26 and in Centralia in July.