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Local Sports

Local sports in the Panhandle are not just a game, they are a lifestyle. Our community eats, sleeps and breathes cheering on our local athletes.
News13 is On Your “Sidelines” bringing you more than the score.
News13’s Stephen Gunter is committed to giving you stories of the Panhandle’s top athletes, intriguing match-ups and unusual sports you may not even know exist.
sgunter@wmbb.com

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Leading the Way with the Long Ball!

WEWAHITCHKA- “We’ve come a long way and I think this year, our bats have been awesome,” said Wewahitchka senior Samantha Wade.

“I think we owe a lot of it to our batting. I think it has improved a lot over last year,” said Senior Ashley Gates.

It’s kind of hard for the Wewahitchka softball team to make a huge improvement from last season, seeing as how the Lady Gators are the reigning Class 2A state champions.

Believe it or not, there has been a major improvement in one offensive category this season, home runs.

Coming in to this year, the previous single season home run record at Wewahitchka was 19, this year’s team total, 43.

“A lot of people make jokes about our home runs, but really it’s just everyday fundamentals that we do, you know, taking plenty of swings at every practice and we believe in taking cuts at every practice,” said Wewa head coach Coy Adkins.

“We bat more than we do defense. People say defense wins games, but I think Coach Coy thinks differently. We bat a lot, we hit constantly at practice. We spend more time hitting than we do on defense,” said junior Hilary Chapman.

Don’t be fooled, the team can also play great defense, but it’s hard to notice that, when it seems like every time you look up, there is a yard ball leaving a Gator bat.

“They’re very coachable, and they listen to what you tell them and when you practice the fundamentals, the homeruns come. We don’t try and hit home runs, we just try and hit the ball hard and as you can see, the result is 43 homeruns,” said Adkins.

With this season’s power surge, I was wondering if it is just in the Wewa air, or water.

“I don’t think it’s in the air, I think it’s just that we do good and work hard,” Gates said.

“I really don’t know where it’s coming from. I guess it’s constantly picking up a bat, and it’s building up our strength,” Chapman stated.

The Lady Gators hope they don’t have a power outage until after the state tournament is over.

“Our kids have a goal set in their minds, and they’re not going to be happy going down there unless they win the state championship,” Adkins said.

Wewahitchka plays Glades Day in the 2A State Semifinals May 7th.

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