By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Fresh off a state runner up finish in Class 1, Jasper’s softball team will have a lot of familiar faces this spring.
The Eagles return seven starters from a team that went 16-10 and beat its first four playoff opponents by 35 runs before falling 7-2 to Wellington-Napoleon in the championship. Head coach David Osborne said the team experimented with several different lineups until settling on one for the playoff run.
“Starting in districts we 10-run ruled everybody up until we got to the Final Four,” Osborne said. “I don’t think we could have done much better than that. We got to the state championship and ran into a pretty good team in Wellington-Napoleon with a senior pitcher-catcher combination that got us. We’re hungry to get back there again this year.”
Jasper has to replace left fielder Abigail Dumm and center fielder Julia Case. Dumm was a second team all-region and first-team all-district player and Case earned second team all-district honors.
Osborne’s daughter, Grace, is the most decorated returner. She was a first team all-state pitcher who also earned first team honors in the region, district and Western Missouri Conference. She pitched 138.1 innings and went 14-10 with 201 strikeouts as a sophomore last year.
“I can brag on my daughter all day long,” Osborne said. “She’s a first team all stater and she was first team all-region as a freshman. We tried to not let her hit, to let her rest a little bit and she earned a spot in the lineup at the end of the season and came up pretty big in that semifinal game. She has definitely put in a lot of work to get to where she’s at.”
Junior Livia Dumm (first team all-region, all-WEMO, all-district) returns at catcher and has caught Osborne since they were kids. She was the team’s leadoff hitter last season and started off the championship game with a triple. She batted .329 with six doubles and two triples and led the Eagles in runs (34), walks (13) and stolen bases (17).
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Senior Mercedes Scott returns at third base after hitting .311 with 22 RBI’s. Sophomore Shiloh Storm returns at short after garnering second team all-district honors and batting .253 with six doubles.
Assistant coach Gabe Haddock’s daughter Gabriella returns at second base with first team all-region and all-district and second team WEMO honors. She was a .333 hitter with seven doubles and 21 runs. At first, sophomore Emersyn Bass returns after earning first team all-region and all-district honors. She hit .333 with five extra-base hits and 21 runs.
Junior Taylor Hinds is the lone starter back in the outfield; she started in right and nabbed first team all-region, all-conference and all-district honors and was a .349 hitter with five doubles, a triple and three homers. She also led Jasper with 30 RBI’s.
Junior Madelyn Hatfield gained a lot of experience running the bases last season and will likely fill one of the two open outfield spots. Junior Annleigh Sentlinger started several games last year. Crystal Smith is back with some base running experience, too. And Makenna Althof should be another contributor.
The roster also has eight freshmen.
“Those girls know if they’re not getting the job done there’s another full team behind them and they can be replaced at any time,” Osborne said. “They’ve been a really good group to work with. I couldn’t ask more from them and it’s a good group of parents. It was an enjoyable year last year and hopefully we’re going to have another one.”
Jasper will jamboree March 11 at Sarcoxie with Liberal and Diamond. The Eagles open the regular season in the Joplin Area Tournament hosted by Purdy. The first home game is March 24 against Lockwood.
