VALDOSTA, Ga. (WTXL) — The Valdosta State softball team is ranked fourth in the country. The Lady Blazers, are consistently one of the top teams in the country, and for a team that reached the Division II Women's College World Series last year, they're not changing much.
The recipe for success is there. Good pitching, a stellar offense, making the routine plays, now they just want to finish the season with a win.
"We're just playing really well as a team. I think that's what's been successful for us, it's not relying one person here, one person there," said head coach Thomas Macera of his 24-5 softball team. "I think what has really set this team up to have a chance at doing something is really how well they all play together."
After their early exit last year, a finish to a season they don't like to bring up, they're focused on the growth from that loss.
"We want to do way better than that," said Macera. "We made a bunch of errors. We actually lost on unearned runs, we just want to play in the here and now. That's what we want to do,
"Our weaknesses were infield, working on that turf field, but we're not really worried about that this year because we hit so well," said senior Nikki Pennington. "We've come from behind in almost half of our games, so we're not worried."
Valdosta State has hit 49 home runs through 29 games, the most in the country in the least amount of time. Pitching has been dominant too. Ace Sam Richards has 171 strikeouts in 22 appearances.
The Lady Blazers are on the road this weekend at West Georgia. Game one of three is Saturday at noon.
