Lady Hornets off to rainy start
Published 8:29 pm Thursday, August 28, 2008
The weather has Poplarville head slow pitch softball coach Jonathan Ray speaking in cliches lately.
Like…rain, rain go away, come again…
Well, maybe just go away.
Ray and his Lady Hornets have had two games rained out in the past week, including Tuesday night’s scheduled contest on the road at Purvis.
Combined with what was a bit of a late start, Poplarville’s first game was on August 16th and some teams across the state started almost two weeks before that, then even Poplarville’s 4-1 record in the early going doesn’t leave Ray with such a sunny disposition.
“We’re still not clicking on all cylinders like I would like for us to be,” Ray, whose team is the reigning two-time Division 7-4A champion, said. “All the rain has been a bad situation, but I guess it’s one that just about everyone is in.
“We scored 13 runs against Biloxi, but it’s still hard to get into any kind of rhythm when you are having to wait a week between games.”
That win over the Lady Indians last week was a 13-0 shutout. The Lady Hornets opened the season with three wins in four games at their own Pete Jackson Tournament.
Since then, however, Poplarville has had games with Columbia and Purvis cancelled due to wet grounds.
The only loss for the Lady Hornets so far has been a defeat at the hands of Enterprise. Poplarville gets a chance to avenge that setback this weekend, travelling to the Enterprise Tournament for a trio of games.
Ray’s crew will meet several perennial powers in the event, taking on Union, Newton County and Enterprise.
All three of the Lady Hornets’ opponents played for state championships last year, with Union winning in Class 1A and Newton County capturing Class 3A while Enterprise, which has won two of the past three Class 2A titles, fell in the title round last year.
“We have tournaments the next two weekends, and then we start league play right after that so we will have some games coming up,” Ray added. “We just have to start playing more consistently once we start playing on a more consistent basis.”