VALDOSTA, GA. — In their last seven games alone the second ranked Valdosta State softball team has outscored their opponents 67-3 The Lady Blazers sit a top the NCAA Division II leaderboards in team home runs with a whopping 76. 19 more than the second place team. Not to mention junior Nicole Pennington leads the individual category with 18 round-trippers. To say this offense is explosive may actually be an understatement.
“I’ve coached for a long time this team just hits better than probably any team I’ve ever had ever. This team just keeps pounding the ball," said Valdosta State softball head coach Thomas Macera.
And you might be asking yourself can this team sustain this type of offensive production? Senior Logan Hill says that won’t be a problem at all.
“I don’t want to sound cocky, but I mean our philosophy is obviously try to hit the ball hard, hit back with line drives and what happens, happens from there," says Hill. "After you get the contact and stay through the ball you can’t control it from there.”
It’s one of the most common sport analogies you’ll find, but in VSU’s case good offense has very much led to good defense. The Lady Blazers have pitched 10 shutouts total this season. A result of the product they're getting from inside the circle.
“Our pitching staff has been holding their own for us and it makes it so much easier because they get us ground ablls and fly balls and we do our job behind them," Hill adds.
With an offense terrorizing opposing pitchers and a defense playing lights out softball, there’s not much Valdosta State is trying to change as the season begins to wind down.
“We just want to sustain what we’ve been doing.We’re not going to try and change practice to make anything else better or work better," Macera told abc 27. "We just want to keep doing what we do well and let’s just worry about that part.”
