Lady Wolverines Hosting LFO In Tomorrow’s Season Opener
Kayleigh Warnock will shoulder most of the pitching duties this season for the Lady Wolverines.
By EDDY GIFFORD
Sports Writer
The Dade County Lady Wolverine 2022 softball team will open the season tomorrow, Aug. 4th with a home game against the Lady Warriors of Lakeview Ft. Oglethorpe. First pitch is set for 5:30 p.m.
Then on Friday afternoon at 5 p.m., they will host the Lady Indians of Murray County before traveling to Ridgeland High School on Saturday to face the Lady Panthers in a doubleheader at noon and 2 p.m. That is four games in three days to start the season. DCHS will be at home again on Tuesday, Aug. 9th, when they host the Lady Ramblers of LaFayette High School.
With three of the first five games at home the Lady Wolverines are looking for a lot of fan support to get the season off to a good start. The 2021 season was an enormous success as the team advanced to Columbus for the Elite Eight.
Coach Stephen Graham provided the following preview to the upcoming season:
“Our team will be led by our six seniors this year, Abby Dwyer, Kendyl Phillips, Kaitlyn Stinnett, Ali Thompson, Alyssa Wilson, and Karlee Welch. We have four returning starters from last year’s team. We will be replacing five starters from last year, which is always difficult, but we have some young talent that will help fill in the gaps in our lineup.
Offensively we are looking for Ali Thompson, Kaitlyn Stinnett, Kendyl Phillips, and Alyssa Wilson to lead the charge. While on defense Kayleigh Warnock will continue to carry most of the load pitching wise, with support from Maddie Cuzzort and Alyssa Wilson.
Raegan Page, KK Castleberry, and Falyn Baggett are juniors that we are looking at to help support our senior group.
Coming off of a successful season last year expectations are high from the coaching staff for our team this year. When you lose five starters, team dynamics always change, so we have really focused on figuring out team chemistry, successful line ups, and figuring out player strengths this summer,” coach Graham said.
The Lady Wolverines will be competing in a new region this year, 1A, D1 Area 7. Some opponents remain the same, Chattooga, Coosa and Pepperell with the other region opponents being Armuchee, Darlington, and Trion.
Good Luck to the Lady Wolverines as they open the 2022 season with lofty expectations and work for a return trip to Columbus.