Lee Academy softball team counting on senior leadership

          Bishopville – The Lee Academy softball team lost three key performers from last year’s team that went 10-9 on the season and reached the SCISA AA state tournament. All three of them – Savanna Price, Carsyn Hall and Haley Carter -- signed with University of South Carolina Sumter.

         However, the Cavaliers return five seniors who played big roles, and head coach Craig Nesbit is looking to the quintet to step up.

         “We are going to lean heavy on our senior leadership from players like Alleigh Brown and Macy Ahtonen,” said Nesbit, whose team is 1-2 to start his second season. “We have some big bats in the lineup this year and hope they can dial it in to help us produce more runs.”

         Besides Brown and Ahtonen, the other seniors are Hartlee Butler, Brantley Norris and Reagan Hopkins.

         As of now, the top three spots in the batting order are held by Butler, Ahtonen and Brown. Butler is the No. 1 pitcher and has a .143 batting average with her lone hit a double. Ahtonen plays third base and is batting .500, while Brown is the catcher with a .222 average.

         Norris is starting in left field and Hopkins is starting at second.

         Lee has two eighth-graders playing roles up the middle. Ansley Nesbit is at shortstop and batting in the cleanup spot, while Jameson Collins is in center and also sees some time at shortstop.

         “We have two very talented eighth-graders that have worked their butts off since last season to be able to fill the holes that we lost from last season,” Coach Nesbit said. “Those two played (American) Legion ball after the school season last season and high level travel ball this past fall to get themselves ready to play this season.”

         The rest of the lineup includes freshman Mallori Frye splitting time between right and center, sophomore Mazie Tomlinson at first and freshman Sara Bell seeing time in the outfield.

         The Cavaliers opened the season with a 7-2 loss to Carolina Academy. LA made six errors, which accounted for six unearned runs.

“That messed up everything that we had worked on for three weeks prior, plus we failed to hit like i know we can hit,” Coach Nesbit said. “We shot ourselves in the foot. We lost that game; CA did not win it.”

Lee followed that up with a 15-0, 3-inning win over Conway Christian in its Region 3 opener. It fell to 1-2 with a 15-5 loss to Williamsburg.

         The Cavaliers have a big region showdown this week against defending region champion Dillon Christian School. They meet in Dillon on Tuesday at 5 p.m. before playing host to DCS on Friday at 6 p.m.

“For us to be able to compete for a region championship this season we are going to rely on playing good defense and making the routine plays, and at the plate we have to hit the ball and score a lot of runs,” Nesbit said. “I’m looking forward to seeing what this group can really do when we get rolling.”