To say that the Perry softball team struggled through the first two weeks of their 2015 season would be to understate the obvious.
The Jayettes were flat-out terrible out of the gate, stumbling to a 1-9 mark that saw the team just 3-11 as the third week of June began.
At that moment everything appeared to change, as a pair of four-game winning streaks helped Perry post a 12-8 mark over their next 20 games to finish the season 15-19. A 1-3 stretch over the final week of the campaign sullied what was an impressive turnaround, as Perry at one point had claimed wins in 9-of-12 contests.
“For whatever reason we just could not get started,” head coach Tina Kenney said. “We could have just given up at that point and had a really terrible year, but the girls pulled it together and although we ended on a bit of a slump, at one point we were playing the way I think we were capable of the whole year.”
Perry was 18-12-1 in 2014, with a 6-7-1 mark in the Raccoon River Conference. The team fell to 15-19, 5-9 this year, primarily due to a marked decline in offensive production.
Despite playing three additional games this year, the Jayette hit total fell from 248-212, runs scored dropped from 157 to 109 and the team batting average dove from a solid .290 to just .240.
Also telling was the struggle to provide hits with runners in scoring position, as RBIs dropped from 140 to 97.
Kenney was hampered this summer by an issue beyond her control — she had only one assistant coach, Ashley Fricke.
“That made a huge difference all season,” she said. “For instance, when we were batting, there was no coach in the dugout to help with things. It greatly limited the amount of time we could spend focusing on individual things.
“We had some girls go through extended slumps, and that ability to zero in on the individual things was one area where having that third coach would have helped make a difference,” she added. “Some of the girls tried doing their own things and that just made what we were trying to teach them get muddled in the process.”
That said, Kenney said it was not difficult for her to find areas to be positive about.
“Emma (Olejniczak) gave us everything she had, and Alyssa (Kruger) has become one of those players who is so solid I can count on her to do whatever she needed to do,” the coach stated. “Rachel (Kinney) had another real good year, and Jo (Diw) started strong and played tough all the way through and showed how super-athletic she is.”
Olejniczak was 12-18 on the mound with an ERA of 2.16 after allowing 110 runs (61 earned) on 151 hits and 54 walks in 198 innings. Her 261 strikeouts was second-best in Class 2A and were 63 more than third-best in the class.
Although 18-12 in 195 innings last year, Olejniczak saw marked improvements in ERA (3.34 in 2014), walks issued (89 in ’14), strikeouts (175) and opponent batting average, a drop from .216 to .182 this year. In a statistical oddity, Perry has scored 166 runs the past two years while allowing 168.
“We just did not give her enough run support and were sloppy on defense way more than we should have been,” Kenney said.
The sophomore led the team in hits (38), doubles (10) and average (.342), with fellow sophomore Kinney hitting .327 with 36 hits, four doubles, a home run and a team-best 16 RBIs.
Kruger hit .302 with three doubles, four triples and a home run and struck out just three times in 112 trips to the batter’s box.
Diw posted a .304 average and led Perry with 20 runs scored. She had two doubles and 15 RBIs and joined Victoria Hegstrom in hitting three home runs apiece. No other Jayette hit better than .200.
“We simply have to have more confidence in our abilities,” Kenney remarked. “The girls need to understand that all they have to do is play to their own strengths and not worry about what anyone else is doing.
“Kate (Whelchel) was our only senior this year and we are going to miss what she brought to us for many years and will miss her dedication and how much she loves playing softball,” she continued. “Victoria and Maddy Jans will be our only seniors next year, so a lot of the younger girls will have opportunities to put the experience they gained this year to use next season.”
Kenney concluded by hoping people remembered how the team responded to their rough start instead of focusing on the slow start.
“We showed through the whole middle of the season how we can play we were are all pulling together,” she said. “Hopefully the girls will remember that and we can pick up there when we start next May.”
