Carroll softball takes aim at playoffs, district title

Carroll’s softball program doesn’t have the dominating pitching it has enjoyed in previous seasons. However, that doesn’t mean Tim Stuewe’s program is out of the playoff picture.

Far from it.

The Lady Dragons (17-9, 6-2) are in contention for the District 7-6A championship and could own the tiebreaker if they finish in a tie. But first things first. Carroll has to clinch a postseason berth.

That pursuit begins Tuesday at home against Euless Trinity followed by a trip to Colleyville Heritage on Friday. A sweep should either lock up a spot or at the very least clinch a tie for a playoff berth.

Carroll has a pretty veteran group from the team that went to the 2015 postseason. Stuewe returned nine letter winners. After dropping two of their first three district games, the Lady Dragons have won their last five.

“This season has been pretty much what I expected,” Stuewe said. “I still thought we would be ahead of where we were. But overall, you can’t complain when you’re competing. We lost three significant players on the infield and the mound. So the way we responded to that has been pretty good.”

Two significant position moves Stuewe made were bringing sophomore Abigail Stuart in from right field to third base and shifting senior Courtney Manning from catcher to second base. It has made for a pretty solid defensive team.

Offensively, Carroll has four hitters batting well above .400 in Stuart, who was the 2015 district offensive MVP, senior center fielder McKenzie Schneider, senior first baseman Christina Hill and freshman catcher Gaby Garcia. Garcia’s arrival partly fueled Manning’s change. This team hasn’t run ruled the teams like it has in the past.

The mound has been a different story, because Carroll doesn’t have a power arm. Freshman Lauren Long, though, has come on and showed promised and poise as she has made the transition from middle school to the varsity. She’s 9-7 with a 2.70 earned-run average. Senior Cami Green is 8-2 with a 4.74 ERA. She has benefited with tremendous run support. The two have split starts.

“I really like the way Lauren has come along for us,” McBride said. “We lost Cami for a little bit so we were asking a little more of Lauren. But she responded in a way that you would hope. Cami’s leadership is important because you need a senior to be on the mound.

“Since we don’t have overpowering pitching, it’s going to come down to us playing good defense. This team will score runs. There have been games where we have lost because of an error or we didn’t get the hits like we needed. But for the most part, we’ve had a solid season.”

District race

As the week began, Carroll was in second place, trailing district leader Hurst L.D. Bell (8-1). Colleyville Heritage is in third at 5-3. Richland is in fourth at 5-4. Coppell is fifth at 4-4.

Carroll has already gone through its two byes. Bell still has one remaining. If Carroll can sweep its last four games – the season finale is April 22 against Bell – and Carroll and Bell finish in a tie, the Lady Dragons would earn the top seed because they would have swept the season series from the Lady Raiders.

This story was originally published April 12, 2016 at 3:46 PM with the headline "Carroll softball takes aim at playoffs, district title."