{"id":19495,"date":"2018-03-21T17:15:18","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T22:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=19495"},"modified":"2018-03-21T17:15:18","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T22:15:18","slug":"sinclair-softball-season-starts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2018\/03\/21\/sinclair-softball-season-starts\/","title":{"rendered":"Sinclair Softball Season Starts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0After coming in second in the conference last season, the Tartan Pride softball team is off to a promising start this year with 11 straight wins. This has also snuck Sinclair into the national rankings, now at number 13.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0According to head coach Steve Beachler, this success can be attributed to a few different things.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cI think we\u2019ve had very good pitching for most of the games,\u201d said head coach Steve Beachler. \u201cWe\u2019ve had great defense after the first couple games. We had a little slow start on defense, I think 11 of our first 22 runs allowed were unearned. But that\u2019s just not being outside enough, we have only been on dirt once since last October.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0The Sinclair defense has held their opponents to a .193 batting average on 279 at bats. The pitching staff is boasting a 1.99 ERA, and they have one shutout. Leading the way is freshman Alexis Strother, who is 5-0 with an ERA of 1.34 and 39 strikeouts. Strother also earned OCCAC Pitcher of the Week honors for her performance during the week of March. 5-11.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0The bats have also been active. Sinclair has 11 home runs on the season, averaging one per game. They have scored 88 runs so far, including a 17-run game and a 20-run game. Sophomore Brianna West has started strong in this category, earning OCCAC Softball Position Player of the Week honors for March. 5-11 after having a .727 OBP, batting .600 (9-15), seven BB, eight runs scored, four RBIs and four steals over nine games. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0West also made the Fall OCCAC All-Academic team, along with six other softball players. Much like the other teams at Sinclair, the softball staff also stresses academics. When asked if this discipline in the classroom helps in the win column, Coach Beachler responded \u201cabsolutely.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cOff the field, our number one goal is stressing the academics,\u201d Beachler said. \u201cI think with this group we have turned the corner on recruiting, getting student-athletes, and we\u2019ve stressed academics and study tables all the time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Another member of the All-Academic team that has started strong is freshman MacKenzie Sharritts. Currently batting .345 in 29 at bats, Sharritts has four home runs and a double in her 10 hits. This puts her at a .793 slugging percentage. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Sharritts has also been excelling on the defensive side of the ball, boasting a 1.000 fielding percentage and playing multiple positions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cShe is an all-around player,\u201d Beachler said. \u201cWe have had her at second base, first base and outfield. Wherever she\u2019s needed she\u2019ll go in and play.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0The Tartan Pride have some tough games left on the schedule. They will play Cuyahoga Community College four times this year in conference play. Cuyahoga is the reigning conference champion after an undefeated conference record last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Paul Helmers<\/strong>
\nSports Editor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0After coming in second in the conference last season, the Tartan Pride softball team is off to a promising start this year with 11 straight wins. This has also snuck Sinclair into the national rankings, now at number 13. \u00a0 \u00a0According to head coach Steve Beachler, this success can be attributed to a few […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10416,"featured_media":19496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2102,2117,2107,3],"tags":[2085,102],"class_list":["post-19495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life","category-softball","category-sports","category-tartan-news","tag-paul-helmers","tag-softball"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/1axz9urpre0sdj1t.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-54r","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19495"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19497,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19495\/revisions\/19497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}