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SPRING PREVIEW: Lakeview Laker softball

Photo by Sam Thiel Pictured above is the Lakeview softball team. Front Row (L to R): Trinity Kirckof, Grace Rausch, Michaela Schuster and Kiana Imes. Middle Row (L to R): Korysa Herrick, Josie Johnson, Toree Heuburger, Sandra Gallasch and Carly Kosel. Back Row (L to R): Gracie Herigon, Emily Lenz, Kaitlynn Bot, Emmy Strensul and Natasha Blomme. Missing: Amelia Lewison, Maddie Kuehl, Jailee Hartle, Madison Smith and Erin Meyer.

COTTONWOOD – After taking a year off, Lakeview Lakers softball coach Tony Johnson has returned for his eighth season with the program and is focused on improving upon the team’s five-win season in 2018.

Though the Lakers only have one senior on roster in Michaela Schuster, Johnson acknowledged that the experience that his team possesses in having multiple returners is one of the main strengths of this year’s team. Johnson also pointed to team speed and hitting as other team strengths.

“We should have a fair amount of experience because most of those girls played last year, that should be our strength,” said Johnson. “We’ve got some pretty good speed, so we should be able to take some bases. I think eventually our hitting is going to turn on and that should be one of our strengths (as well).”

With a pair of games already under their belts, Johnson sees multiple areas of their game in need of improvement but pointed to overall knowledge of the game as the biggest challenge moving forward.

“Our biggest weakness is just knowledge of the game,” said Johnson. “They get flustered when they aren’t sure where they should be throwing the ball in from the outfield and things like that.”

Looking ahead, Johnson is focused on providing his players with a better understanding of the game which will hopefully translate to more wins at the end of the season.

“I think last year they only won five games so obviously our goal is to improve on that,” said Johnson. “They did have some close games, hopefully if we can clean some things up going into the extra games here instead of maybe just playing close games we can actually sneak out a couple of wins. (I want them to) go away from this year with a better knowledge of the game and just have improvements throughout the year.”

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