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By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM --- After an error going into the fifth inning, it was all downhill for the Putnam High softball team.
Head coach Steve Smith, in his first year piloting the Clipper team, said the team was hanging in very well, behind by only two points in last week's game against Wheeler. But a Clipper error going into the fifth seemed to snowball into one Wheeler run after another. The Clippers lost 10-2. Smith said after the error Wheeler scored three runs in the fifth and another three in the sixth.
"Overall, it was a good game. I saw a lot of positives with our team," said Smith.
The skies got brighter in the next softball contest as the Clippers beat Norwich Tech by a score of 12 to 5. The winning pitcher was Stephanie Baumuller, a junior. She tossed 16 strikeouts. Smith said she had pitched a bit last year and also hits pretty well.
"Once we got on base, we did well," Smith said. Once they get the hits and get on base, Smith is teaching the girls the fine art of stealing bases. "We're doing slide-in drills to get to the basics of stealing bases." Smith said in softball there are a lot of wild pitches and so stealing bases works to try to get the players to third base and beyond "as often as possible," he said.
Smith calls this year a rebuilding year and he's looking forward to Putnam moving to the tech conference next year. "Moving to the tech league will be huge - in a good way," he said.
"I find the girls are very athletic, but if you don't know the ins and outs of playing the game, that doesn't do you much good," he said. "This year is definitely a rebuilding year."
Injuries already plague the Clippers. A freshman shortstop has a broken pinkie finger and Julie Therrien, a freshman who plays first base, might have a stress fracture in her palm. She's also one of the team's better hitters.
While he has a few players from last year, including one senior, two juniors and two sophomores, the freshman "crop" is very strong, he said. Many of the up and coming players have played together for a while in the senior league and that's an advantage for the Clipper team.