By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Southeast of Saline Lady Trojan softball team begins postseason play today with a 1pm first pitch against the Minneapolis Lions in Hesston.
SES enters the regional as the two-seed at 15-5 while the Lions come in as the seven-seed at 6-14.
The two met earlier this season for a doubleheader that saw the Trojans emerge with two run-rule victories of 14-2 and 19-0.
While SES dominated the Lions earlier this season, head coach Pesha Ptacek is focused on making sure her young squad doesn’t overlook the teams first round opponent.
“We’ve talked a lot about focusing on Minneapolis and taking things one opponent at a time and one at bat at a time,” she said. “We need to stay out of our heads and focus on being in the moment instead of looking ahead to what might be.”
After losing out on the 2020 season to the Covid-19 pandemic, this Southeast of Saline team is hungry for a chance to prove themselves in a wild and unpredictable single-elimination playoff atmosphere.
“This definitely means more to everyone after losing out on last season,” Ptacek said. “Their level of excitement is high and for the vast majority of the girls on this team this is their first chance to compete in postseason softball.”
The Trojans will have access to all three of their best pitchers in this game, as Carly Commerford, Bryna Baird and Lexi Jacobson will all be available if needed this afternoon.
With a shortened playoff roster, SES has been able to focus on the little things in the week leading up to regionals, something that the team hopes will pay dividends as they look for three wins to punch their ticket to state.
“We spent a lot of time fine tuning things this week,” she said. “We’ve been fortunate to have a lot of girls out for softball this season but when we cut our numbers down and had our three coaches working with a smaller number of girls we got some more reps to work on some of those little things.”
First pitch is scheduled for 1pm as Southeast and Minneapolis will play in the first of four games from Hesston today. The winner will advance to play the winner of the 3-6 matchup between 13-7 Smoky Valley and 7-13 Halstead on Wednesday.
Stay tuned to the Salina Post for continuing coverage of the SES Lady Trojan softball team throughout the 2021 postseason.