By: Dustin Kent - JCFloridan.com
The Chipola Lady Indians will try to get their season back on track Friday when they head to Tallahassee to take on the re-hot TCC Lady Eagles in a crucial doubleheader.
Chipola comes in at 1-3 in league competition after getting swept by Northwest Florida State in its Panhandle Conference opener and then splitting a doubleheader with Gulf Coast State on Wednesday.
The Lady Indians won the first game with the Lady Commodores 2-1 on the strength of a complete-game, one-hit pitching performance by freshman Jessica Elliott, but the wheels came off in the second game, with Gulf Coast putting together 13 hits and taking advantage of five Chipola errors in a 15-2 rout.
It was perhaps the worst effort of the season for the Lady Indians, who also managed just two hits off of Gulf Coast starter Katherine Gordon.
"We're struggling right now," Chipola associate head coach Jimmy Hendrix said Thursday. "We're not ready or prepared to play a doubleheader right now. It's tough. The freshmen kind of don't know yet. They know the expectations, but they don't know the hole we're putting ourselves in. But the one thing we're missing is some sophomore leadership. It's something we haven't had all year."
One sophomore the team was counting on to be a major factor this season, pitching Rosanne de Vries, is struggling physically at the moment with inflammation in her pitching shoulder that prevented her from pitching Wednesday's second game after struggling to overcome the discomfort in a brief outing against Northwest Florida State.
Without de Vries, Chipola turned to freshman Luana Imamura, who struggled Wednesday in giving up nine earned runs on 13 hits, though there was little in the way of support from the defense or the offense.
Hendrix said that de Vries' status is day-to-day and it wasn't known whether she would be able to pitch against TCC.
The Lady Indians can use all the help they can get against a Lady Eagles team sitting atop the Panhandle Conference standings at 4-0 having won seven of the last eight games overall.
TCC is led by New Zealand national team player Te Reo Powhiri Matautia, who is batting .375 with three home runs and 24 RBI, while Ashley Dobson (10-2, 0.82 Earned Run Average) and Mariah Rivera (9-4, 1.82 ERA) have been lights out in the circle.
"On paper, they're probably the best team in the conference," Hendrix said of the Lady Eagles. "They're going to be really good, so we're going to have to be a lot better. But if we don't get any better, we're not going to the state tournament anyway. It doesn't matter if we beat TCC or not, but if we go over there and get better, then we've still got a chance to make state and a lot of stuff can happen then.
"But if we don't play well and go over there and get swept, we're right back in the same spot."