DIFFERENT IS GOOD

Different Is Good

GLENN PARRISH

Booneville School District | 5/18/2023

What a difference a week makes. But different is good.

A week ago the Lady Bearcats were battling rain and prepping for a state tournament appearance against Genoa Central. This week the preparation is for a title game.

This week it's sunny and preparation for a Class 3A state tournament appearance Saturday morning at Farris Field on the campus of the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.

Game time is a little different 10 a.m. and will be broadcast statewide on Arkansas PBS.

Different surface

This week's practices for the championship game have required bus trips to Lavaca, who graciously allowed use of their field, which has a turf infield, as the Lady Bearcats prepare to face Atkins on the Farris Field turf.

“We went to Lavaca three days this week. They were very nice. It’s not turf in the outfield but there’s not a lot of places around here to find both,” said Simpson.

With seniors Leigh Swint, Layla Byrum, Karmen Kent, and Emily Suttles also preparing for graduation week events, that threw a rise ball into the mix, but the Class of 2023 members were able to commute to Lavaca and leave a little early Tuesday evening to get ready for Class Night Simpson said.

Athletic director Josh Walker has also acquired a full turf field for practice on Friday, Simpson said.

“I feel like Lavaca, since it’s new, it plays like a true field,” said Simpson. “We’ve played at places like Greenland where it’s really hard and gets big bounces and it’s fast.”

Different from most coaches who will be in Conway, since he helped with the Arkansas High School Coaches Association All Star game last summer, Simpson has a little experience with the UCA turf.

“It plays true. It’s going to play like we played in Gravette. That’s another thing, we’ve played at Gravette three times, we played at Harrison three games so we’ve been on turf game wise seven or eight times,” said Simpson.

Different orders

Simpson has turned in a different lineup card about a couple dozen times this year.

“If you went back, I don’t know how many different combinations we’ve had, but it’s 20 or 25 different combinations in the 30-something games we’ve played,” said Simpson. “We’ve kind of settled in the last few weeks.

“We’ve had some girls start stepping up and fulfil their role.”

Among the bigger changes was taking leadoff hitter Roni Tillery and moving her to fifth offering some protection for cleanup hitter Lexi Franklin as well, as other benefits.

“We looked at our stats and Ellie (Smith) and Layla (Byrum) were getting on (base) at a pretty high rate and scoring a lot of runs,” said Simpson. “And we knew that pitching was going to get faster at the end of the year and Layla likes to slap when the pitching is fast.

“It gives us a combination at the top with lots of speed and Lexi gets on base all the time so it also gives us another person behind her to be able to hit her in.”

Now, everyone in the order is apt to do damage.

“Cam Parish came up the other day with the bases loaded and got a single and cleared the bases. She had another big bases loaded hit in the 3-4 game in the regional,” said Simpson. “If I’m not mistaken she has the highest average with runners in scoring position."

Even outs have been different of late.

“We’ve really challenged them the last three weeks. At the beginning of the year we were striking out a ton," said Simpson. "We’ve tried to tell them you put a lot of pressure on (defenses) when you just put the ball in play. The part of the lineup that was struggling is putting it in play – like Presley Walker, her average is not good but she puts it in play.”

It wasn’t just the order either. There were a lot of moving parts in the field as well. For instance Kylie Lunsford caught a couple games but has settled in at the designated hitter spot.

“She’s always been able to hit the ball pretty well but when she got in games she could stress herself out,” said Simpson.

Different defense

Also different in the late season is that the Lady Cat defense has really cleaned up its play.

“If you think about it we have two people playing in the same position (on the infield) they played in last year, which is Lexi (in the circle) and Layla (at shortstop),” said Simpson. “Leigh moved from center to third, Roni moved from second to catcher, you’ve got Cam a freshman that has never played second base ,you’ve got Ellie (at first) who’s never started.

“The outfield, besides Karmen (Kent), is in a different position.”

Farrah Stringer has logged time in the outfield as has Shelbie Myers.

“Farrah has never played in the outfield. We kind of threw everybody we had that was not settled into a spot into left field one day and said this is somebody’s to earn.”

Different dugout

Also different of late has been the dugout.

“Even the girls that don’t play, I challenged them that it don’t matter, to be involved. If you were at the game (last Saturday) you know that dug out was rocking the whole game. I know it affected Hackett because their fans walked by and said it did,” said Simpson.

The dugout is also different as Simpson is a first year head coach after four years as an assistant to Ronnie Denton. That move allowed for Bailey Stringer, who played softball collegiately for four years and won two GAC titles at Arkansas Tech, to assume a bigger role too.

Of Stringer Simpson says, “we are blessed to have her and it’s not only the on the field stuff, the girls also feed off here as well.”

Different results

Saturday's win over Hackett was obviously a different outcome from the first two meetings, a 2-1 loss in March, and a 12-2 loss in the District 3A-4 tournament finals.

“You go into that game (in district) thinking you’ve got a chance because the first game was very early and our lineup was completely different. We went into that game with a lot of confidence and we get run-ruled,” said Simpson. “I think after that it kind of opened up our eyes, not only me as a coach, but coach Stringer, we’ve got to do things different.”

Different has been good.

The Lady Cats also want an outcome that is different from their last meeting with Atkins, but altogether the same as the one the 2004 team, which featured Swint’s mother Paula, achieved in a state title.

As for the opponent in Saturday’s game, though they have not seen one another this season, Atkins is not completely foreign to the Lady Cats. The Lady Red Devils knocked the Lady Cats out of the state tournament in the quarterfinal round last year in Harrison.

There are only a couple of differences in the Atkins lineup of last May.

“They’ve got a freshman starting in left field and a freshman who only plays defense starting at third. Everybody else from that game last year is back,” said Simpson.

The Lady Red Devils were the two seed from Region 3 and got to the finals with wins over Salem, Glen Rose, and Lamar.

The Lady Cats took down Genoa Central, Baptist Prep, and Hackett to get to Saturday. They did so with Franklin allowing two runs over 21 innings.

“Coach Stringer kind of talked to her and asked her to kind of take it to another level the next four games and she really has,” said Simpson. “If you look at her numbers she’s not striking out a lot of hitters but she’s getting a lot of weak contact.”

That difference has worked out just fine.
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