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The Frederick Lady Bombers played a competitively challenging duo of games on June 17. Their competition on the field that night came from neighboring rivals Blair and Cache.

Miles Smith, head coach of the Lady Bombers, shared some thoughts about the game versus Blair. He stated “We didn’t play real well. Blair is not on our level, but they are a solid Class B team. They played pretty solid, hitting the ball a little bit and they aren’t a bad team. The first two innings our effort wasn’t there and what we have is an expectation of it to be. I can live with certain mistakes because the kids are human and not perfect, but the effort mistakes are a no, no. A missed ball here or there and an occasional bad throw are things that happen, but the effort mistakes are the things that we don’t like as coaches.”

Something that has come along for the team is the continuity of talent from the pitcher’s circle. Jade Hernandez is a growing part of that talent. Playing as a sophomore pitcher, she is constantly improving her game and becoming a part of the Lady Bombers’ soul and heart on a varsity level. “She gets better everyday and every time out she is showing consistency,” commented the coach.

There were some other good efforts on the field to lend Jade Hernandez defensive support. According to Smith “Jaidyn Thompson made a couple of nice catches in the outfield. Ashlyn Brite made some nice plays at shortstop, as well.”

Frederick also executed well at the plate. The team has several new faces that fans will see either at the plate or in the pitcher’s circle. Sydney Gaither joined the team and is adjusting to playing on Frederick’s competitive level. Smith showed confidence in her ability, commenting “She has the skills to play on the level I want her to play at, but it is just a matter of us getting in there to do the work so she can be at that level. She hadn’t seen a whole lot of that, but she’s a good ballplayer. She’s going to get in there and help us out a lot. We are glad that she decided to come over and she will be a good addition to our program for the next couple of years.” Mackenzie Thornton also joined the team. “She’s another one of those, she is a good ballplayer. She’s just going to be a freshman and will help us out. We’re going to enjoy having her for the next four years,” Smith explained. The coach wants to place emphasis on the fact that his team needs to play at the same level they are taught to compete, regardless of who they are playing.

Frederick struck down Blair 12-6.

When the Lady Bombers took the field against Cache, it was competitive.

“Cache is one of those teams that you can’t make mistakes against because if you do, they score runs,” the coach said.

Fielding mistakes by the Lady Bombers allowed Cache to earn some offensive advantages. Cache eventually scored a total of nine runs.

“We are not going to see a better team than them all year long. They have a great pitcher, play great defense and hit the ball as well as anybody else,” Smith stated, recalling the talent of Frederick’s competitor.

Something interesting about Cache is a majority of the offensive lineup consists of left-handed batters.

Coach Smith is glad that his team played such a worthy adversary. He believes it does several things for the Lady Bombers. 1) Losing to a strong competitor keeps Frederick humble in spirit and attitude. 2) It showed Frederick their own weaknesses that other teams didn’t reveal in a game.

Something constructive about this game is how it put a challenge for Emily Wasinger to step up her pitching ability. She is probably one of the best pitchers in this part of the state, but it is always good when a solid defensive athlete faces off against solid batters in a game situation. Mile Smith summed it up the best, sharing “I like playing teams like that because it makes us better. I like playing Cache because they are a good program and can expose things that we need to work on.”

There is also some great feedback from Cache’s coaching staff to Coach Smith. Frederick’s head coach explained “Cache’s coach was impressed with Emily Wasinger. She played a tremendous game, striking out eleven batters. They scored nine runs, but only one of them was an earned run. The rest of those runs were due to errors on defense. Even though we were beat, I was pleased with how we hit. Cache has a tremendous pitcher. We probably won’t see another athlete like her except when we play Cache again this year.”

Frederick played a strong game. It might not seem like it if someone only looks at the final score but the Lady Bombers only struck out at the plate twice in the entire game. A good example of ability is how Frederick scored their run. Jaidyn Thompson was the leadoff hitter and earned a base hit, following up by stealing second base. Emily Howard moved Thompson over to third base on a hit at the plate. A hit by Emily Wasinger to centerfield brought in the run scored by Jaidyn Thompson.

The coach gave notoriety to the entire team for consistently developing and he gave Jaidyn Thompson credit for her performance in this game.

Cache won 9-1.

A great attribute about the upcoming team is that twenty-eight players are going out for positions. On average three players are competing for a single field position, which builds a strong competitive spirit and beneficial base for the team as a whole. “It’s nice from a coach’s standpoint because if anyone gets injured, I can fill a position with another player and keep the same continuity among my girls. There’s a lot of these girls on my team that would be starting for some of these teams we are playing. I have an entire team that can play ball and the bad thing is they all need playing time, but it can be challenging to find playing time for every single player. I’ve been pleased with every single one of them and my freshmen are working really hard. They aren’t getting much playing time, but I am trying to work them in wherever I can. They’ve all done a good job when they get the opportunity to come in and play a little,” shared Smith.

What makes this freshmen team so special is how they can apply their experience. Many of them will compete in junior high softball, bringing the advantage of varsity experience against junior high rivals. There will also be ample opportunity for them to contribute to junior varsity and varsity games, having playing time on each team.