La Salle-Peru softball preview: Cavaliers look to end regional drought

Over the past three seasons, the La Salle-Peru softball team has been on the verge of a regional championship.

The Cavaliers have played in a regional final in each of the last three seasons, but lost all three, including a 3-1 loss to Rock Island last spring.

With seven starters back from last year’s 25-5 team, the Cavaliers are hoping to break through and win their first regional title since 2013.

“Of course, our end goal is to make it to state, but we have goals throughout the year,” senior outfielder Taylor Martyn said. “Winning the [Interstate 8] Conference again would be great. Winning a regional would be awesome. We’ve gotten close but just haven’t finished it, so we’re really hoping to do that and just overall have a really fun season. For me and all my fellow seniors, I think we all can agree that making our senior year a super fun one we can remember is one of our biggest goals.”

Martyn said the Cavs will have to focus at the task at hand in order to end their regional drought.

“I would say just working really hard at practice day in and day out and not getting too ahead of ourselves [are keys to winning a regional],” Martyn said. “I think sometimes what happens is you look too far in the future and you forget that you have to win a few other crucial games to get to where you want to be. I think that’s been kind of our issue maybe is we were looking too far into the future instead of worrying about what we have going on now.”

Martyn, who is recovering from an injury suffered in basketball, is one of eight starters back for the Cavaliers along with senior Avah Moriarty in left field, senior Ava Lannen at first base, Callie Mertes at second base, junior Ava Lambert at shortstop and senior Chloe Mitchell in the pitching circle.

Junior Addie Duttlinger started in right field last season but is moving behind the plate this spring, while senior Evin Becker served as designated player and pitcher last spring but will play third base this year.

Winning the (Interstate 8) conference again would be great. Winning a regional would be awesome. We’ve gotten close but just haven’t finished it, so we’re really hoping to do that and just overall have a really fun season.

—  L-P senior Taylor Martyn

Senior Izzy Pohar also saw playing time last season, while classmates Laurel Politsch and Brooklyn Lowery could also contribute.

Freshmen Kelsey Fredrick and Karmen Piano will combine to fill in for Martyn in center field until she returns and play right field, while classmate Taylor Vescogni will get some innings in the circle.

“We all have already formed a close bond so we know how to help each other out in rough situations and work together,” Mitchell said. “We also have a lot of leaders to mentor the new girls.”

Mitchell returns after a dominant junior season in which she went 15-4 with a 1.39 ERA and 154 strikeouts in 110 1/3 innings.

Lambert, Mertes and Vescogni, who can throw in the low 60s, also will pitch.

“Chloe is back, and she’s been working hard,” L-P coach Randy Huebbe said. “She really showed up in summer travel ball. Having her back is really going to help.”

Behind Mitchell, Huebbe said the defense has a “chance at being better than last year” with a speedy outfield, three of four infielders back and Duttlinger taking over behind the plate.

Offensively, Huebbe expects the Cavs to be strong again despite losing NewsTribune Player of the Year Maddy Pangrcic and Interstate 8 MVP Paige Kirkman.

Duttlinger is likely to move into the leadoff spot. Becker, Lambert and Mertes are expected to be in the middle of the order with Lannen, Martyn, Moriarty, Fredrick and Piano also providing offense.

“We should be pretty solid all the way through no mater how we put the lineup,” Huebbe said. “We’ll try different scenarios.

“We [scored a lot of runs] last year. There’s no guarantee this year. We did lost Kirkman and Pangrcic, who were our top two hitters, so we’ll see, but I think we can [score a lot again]. We have that potential. With Chloe on the mound, if we put 3-4 runs up, we should be OK.”

The Cavaliers averaged 8.9 runs per game last season.

“We will definitely wreak havoc on the bases,” Martyn said. “We’re very quick and we’ve got some girls who can really hit the ball, so I’m excited to see what we can do.”