The Lady Freddies are looking to build off their district championship season from last year with their sights set on a state title, anchored by a pair of first team All-KMAC players that look to lead an otherwise young Fredericktown squad.
“Winning and being district champions and regional runner-up (Elite Eight) has motivated us and has made us very hungry for another successful season and hopefully a KMAC championship and a longer tournament run,” said Fredericktown softball head coach Jeff Keener.
Fredericktown is coming off a season in which they went 17-10 and 9-3 in KMAC play, which was good for second place in the regular season. Their district title came on a 5-2 win over Johnstown and was the first in team history.
Keener said in order for them to get to the final four and ultimately win a state championship, they need to “do the little things.”
This year’s team has five returning players, including juniors Jesenia Montalvo, Julia Partington, Trinity Garretson, Makaya Frazier and sophomore Taylor Brown.
Brown was a first team All-KMAC player last year in her freshman season and Keener believes the sky is the limit for her in her sophomore year. She batted .558, good for third in the conference. She also ranked second with 43 hits, sixth with a .766 slugging percentage, tied for fourth with eight doubles, tied for second with four triples and eighth with 14 steals.
Montalvo was also first team All-KMAC and was seventh in batting with a .517 average, eighth in slugging at .733, ninth in hits with 31, tied for third with three triples and fifth in the conference with 26 RBIs.
“I'm expecting more contributions from all five of these ladies,” Keener said. “They all helped us make history and I know they all want to do better and improve their game and be more successful. They also want to win the KMAC and go farther in the tournament. We also need our other players to step up and make valuable contributions to our success on the varsity team.”
The strengths of the team are the returning lettermen who got plenty of meaningful experience in what was a very successful 2022 campaign. Keener said they made great plays, had great at-bats and were involved in high-pressure matchups.
The main weakness, Keener said, is that the team doesn’t have a lot of varsity experience. The team had seven seniors graduate last spring, some of whom were key parts of last year's district championship team. Keener said players will be thrown into the lineup and baby steps will need to be taken until they feel comfortable.
Keener played college baseball at the University of Rio Grande and has been playing softball since graduating high school. He said he’s been around the two sports his whole life and has learned to pick up strategies in various game situations that help in his coaching.
Keener said this means throwing strikes, making plays and playing small ball when needed. This is the recipe of being a good team that will be competitive throughout the season, he said. It is all about doing “the little things.”
“Do what you can control,” Keener said. “During my playing career and coaching career, I have learned over time if you do the little things during a softball game, you win most of the games. You have to hit offensively every game and you have to make every play on defense to drastically increase your odds of winning. ‘Little things’ win more softball games than you think.”
Fredericktown has their first game of the season against Loudonville on Saturday, March 25 at 1 p.m. They start KMAC play on March 29 against Cardington-Lincoln at home.
