By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
There are few words to accurately describe just how dominant the Southeast of Saline softball team has been this season, and at the midway mark of their 2023 campaign, the Lady Trojans look like a force to be reckoned with ahead of the home stretch.
Southeast will enter the final eight games of their regular season at 11-1 and a perfect 4-0 in league play, having outscored their first 12 opponents by an obscene 135 runs.
“We’re better in all facets of the game than we were last year and I’m so excited by that improvement,” SES head coach Pesha Ptacek said. “We’ve been able to fine-tune a lot of things now that these girls have all played big roles for us for a long time now.”
While an 11-1 record is impressive all on its own, it doesn't do the first half of the season justice, as eight of those wins have come by mercy rule, and five have come in shutouts.
“We haven’t been surprised by the level of success we’ve had this season but I do feel like last year we let a lot of teams play with us,” Ptacek said. “This year we’ve done a better job of finishing games strong and not letting people hang around.”
While this Lady Trojan team has always possessed the talent to make a deep postseason run, this year’s squad has a new level of veteran poise that past versions lacked, which has made Southeast all the more terrifying on the diamond.
“The experience on this team has been huge,” she said. “It’s been great to see that growth and to see what consistency can do. The conversations we’re having with our pitchers and the things we’re talking about across the board are so detailed and analytical in ways they haven’t been in the past.”
While the Lady Trojan lineup has feasted on opposing pitching, striking for 160 runs in just 12 games, their work in the circle has been even more impressive, as the trio of Lexi Jacobson, Bryna Baird, and Carly Commerford has kept opposing orders off balance all season long.
Those three arms have combined to toss 60 innings this year, combining to allow just 17 earned runs for a 1.98 ERA, adding 72 strikeouts to just 19 walks.
Offensively, Southeast has done their damage by committee, hitting .462 and slugging north of .570 as a team, with almost a quarter of their hits on the year coming by the extra-base variety.
The Lady Trojans have also been incredibly patient at the plate, reaching base on 65 walks while combining to strike out just 26 times in 12 games.
Despite all of this success and video game-like numbers, SES remains every bit as committed to improvement as they were the day the season began, and will look to continue honing their skills down the home stretch of their campaign.
“We absolutely still feel like we have areas we can improve in,” Ptacek said. “We’re still working on consistency and we have the luxury of working on the finer details because we have all the basics down and our average softball IQ is so high this year.”
The Lady Trojans will be back in action for the biggest doubleheader of their season on Thursday when they travel to Beloit to take on the rival Trojans in a pair of games that could very well decide this year’s league title.
“We’re feeling good about where things stand,” Ptacek said. “We have a big challenge coming up in Beloit and we do feel like we have some things to avenge from last year so this is a big one for us and the girls are hungry to get it done.”
For continuing coverage of Southeast softball all season long, stay tuned to the Salina Post.