The softball team came into the season lacking experience, and what little it had was missing in Friday’s first round playoff game against Suitland.
The Panthers were without several players as they fell into an early hole and suffered a season-ending 37-5 loss to the Rams at Charles Carroll Middle School in New Carrollton.
“We were missing four of five [players],” Parkdale coach Larry Overton said. “That might not have made a difference in the game; it just might have been closer. We were missing kids who played last year who were seniors this year that had other obligations, like working and doing other things.”
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Suitland advances to face Eleanor Roosevelt in the second round of the Maryland Public Secondary School Athletic Association playoffs on Monday, while Parkdale finishes the season at 0-17.
On Friday, the Panthers ran into early trouble, surrendering four runs before Suitland recorded its first out.
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“Most of the season, that’s what it is,” Overton said. “We fall into a hole, and toward the end of the game we start playing better. But it’s just a talent thing; most of my kids have not played. They didn’t play rec ball or middle school ball – competitively, anyway.”
Parkdale senior first baseman LaPria Saunders had a strong outing in her final high school game, going 3-for-4 at the plate and stealing a couple of bases.
“Someone said at the banquet the other night that she should be the Athlete of the Year,” Overton said of Saunders, who is also a volleyball and basketball standout. “She’s just a good athlete and she just has a good mental outlook – she just wants to play. She doesn’t worry about the score, the weather, the other team. If there’s a game, she wants to play, and that what you love. She just comes to play.”
Next year, Overton hopes to have more players like Saunders and added that this year’s trials should prove beneficial in the long run.
“I think just the experience will help,” he said. “It’s more of a life lesson than a sports lesson. Some of them said they will go to camp, and we’re really focusing on the JV players and getting some of them into some camps this summer just to see what it’s really like to play a real game of softball.”