Position shuffle paid off for Grapevine softball

When the 2016 softball season began, Grapevine’s veteran coach Steve Bottoms realized that he had a lot of work to do. Many players were going to shift positions.

But through the years, Bottoms has understood his personnel and knows where they can excel. The movement worked and the Lady Mustangs (17-9, 9-3 District 6-5A) are in the postseason for the 13th time in Bottoms’ 18 seasons.

Yet the regular season didn’t end this past Friday. Grapevine finished in a tie for second place with Lake Dallas. The teams were to meet at Killough Middle School on Monday to determine positions. If Grapevine won and placed second, it would have met Saginaw Boswell in the Class 5A Region I bi-district playoffs. If Grapevine lost and finished third, it would face White Settlement Brewer.

“It’s been interesting because we lost so many people last year and really had to move some people around this year,” Bottoms said. “There were definitely a lot of unknowns. But the good thing is that we had a pretty steady number of returners. So that helped.”

For one, senior Cynthia Haugh was moved from first base to catcher. She has responded with a huge offensive season. Going into Monday, she was batting an unheard-of .618 with 10 home runs and 42 RBIs. The average and home runs are single-season records. She’s within striking distance of the RBI mark of 47, which she already owns. Haugh has signed with North Texas.

“Actually, she’s been drawing some intentional walks,” Bottoms said. “But when there are people on base, you have to pitch to her.”

By moving Haugh, Bottoms developed a platoon at first base between Haugh’s younger sister, sophomore Abby, and senior Alyssa Gonzalez. Both serve as the team’s pitchers, so when one is in the circle, the other is at first.

Meanwhile, freshman Allison Dossett is now in center field and junior Rachel Dossett returned to third base. Dossett, who missed all of 2015 with a broken ankle, has also put together a great season by hitting .440 and ranking second on the team with 26 RBI.

Bottoms has rotated Abby Haugh and Gonzalez at pitcher depending on the matchup. Haugh is the harder thrower. Gonzalez’s strength is her command.

Colleyville Heritage update

There’s nothing wrong with being perfect. Allison Conaway has guided Colleyville Heritage (18-14, 7-5 in District 7-6A) into the postseason in each of her four seasons.

Following finishing with the third seed this spring – CHHS won the tiebreaker with Richland because it swept the Lady Rebels – the Lady Panthers meet Midlothian in the Class 6A Region I bi-district playoffs in a best-of-three series. The opener is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Friday in Midlothian. However, Friday and potential deciding third game on Saturday are each scheduled for 7:30 at Colleyville Heritage.

“We had to fight to get into the playoffs and needed a big last week to do it,” Conaway said. “We had two out with a runner at first in the seventh inning at Coppell [Tuesday] and found a way to score to win [9-8]. Our seniors have been clutch.”

The ironic story is the somewhat “welcomed return” for sophomore pitcher Sydney Kaai. Kaai, who pitched as a freshman at Grapevine, did so for the wrong reason. She actually lived in the CHHS attendance zone. But that was fixed after the 2014-2015 season, Good thing, too, because Kaai has been the answer on the mound for Conway. Expect her to pitch the entire series against Midlothian.

“We’ve lived and died with her,” Conway said. “We’ll likely do that again.”

This story was originally published April 26, 2016 at 5:42 PM with the headline "Position shuffle paid off for Grapevine softball."