Athens falls to Meigs on senior night

Frustration overtook the Athens High School Bulldogs softball team on a gloomy Monday night during its 9-1 Senior Night loss to the Meigs Marauders at Jacobs Field.

Seniors Kayla Dunfee, Anya Miller, Caroline Herd and Amanda Mecek were recognized during a ceremony prior to the game. The seniors are coming to the realization that their final season is almost over.

  

"You grow up playing softball your whole life and you’re always like ‘I want to be that senior’ and now that it’s here, it’s kind of sad because it’s over,” Dunfee said. “It is really important because most people don’t stick it out and for me to be able to stick it out and be playing for 10 plus years it’s really important.”

The Bulldogs (4-12, 3-5) struggled to score against a strong Meigs defense and were plagued by eight defensive errors.

Athens head coach Nick Pomento said the mistakes have to do with a lack of experience in a lineup with only three returning varsity players.

“I think most of them understand what they’re doing wrong. It’s just a matter of being there and doing it and playing the game,” Nick Pomento said. “How can I really fault them for something they really don’t have the experience doing?”

                

Meigs opened the scoring at the top of the first with a run by center fielder Kelsey Shuler.  A one-handed catch by Marauder first baseman Allison Davis at the bottom of the first contributed to three quick outs for the Bulldogs.

               

Athens pitcher Abby Pomento held Meigs in the second with her first of three strikeouts but Meigs kept the pressure on the Bulldogs, knocking out the first three batters to finish the inning. Meigs began to pull away in the third inning when Autumn Tackett stepped up to the plate.

                

With the bases loaded, Tackett’s double brought home three Marauders, increasing their lead to 5. Looks and utters of frustration filled the Athens bench as the players again, were handed three straight outs. Athens rallied to hand Meigs three straight outs at the top of the fourth inning.

                

“I think the frustration is that we’re not hitting the ball and you have to be able to hit the ball,” Nick Pomento said. “Nothing against the team, they have a tremendous team, but we should have been hitting that pitcher all over the place.”

                

A ray of sunshine peaked through the clouds as shortstop Tiffany James scored the Bulldogs’ only run of the game off Herd’s single. Meigs responded at the top of the fifth when Delilah Fish hit her fourth home run of the season. The Marauders continued to hold tight on defense while still dominating offensively to finish the game with 16 hits in 37 plate appearances.

               

Although Athens is not satisfied with the loss, the players try to stay on a positive note.

“At least I got to play, that’s a good thing. And the rain held off,” Dunfee said. “At least it was closer than it was last time. Last time it was 22-0, this time it was 9-1 so we've improved definitely a lot.”

The Bulldogs are looking to the next two weeks, as their season comes to a close, in hopes that they will finish on a high note.

“If we win our next two league games, we’ll go .500 in the TVC so that’s a really big improvement,” Dunfee said. “We’ve won a lot more games than I thought we would and we’ve played a lot better than I thought we would. It’s really impressive to see how hard girls work.”

*A photo slideshow of the game is available on the photo page.

Bulldogs use rain delay as bonding experience

Sports teams participate in many activities in order to bring players together. They have dinners, long, hard practices and go on trips among a myriad of other things. The Athens High School Bulldogs used a 30-minute rain delay in their game against the Vinton County Vikings to bond.

Athens (4-11, 3-4) rallied in the third inning after a rain delay to lead the team to a 6-2 win over Vinton County Monday night at Jacobs Field at the West State Street Park Monday night.

The Vikings opened the scoring in the second inning after an error at first base by the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs then suffered three quick outs at the bottom of the second and struggled on defense, allowing the Vikings to take a 2-0 lead at the bottom of the third, a familiar situation for the Bulldogs.

“We always have a slow start,” Athens head coach Nick Pomento said. “And if the other team gets out in front of us, then we’re sunk. That’s pretty much the way the season has been so far.”

A flash of lightning forced a 30-minute rain delay during Athens’ first at bat of the third inning. Shrieks of laughter could be heard from the Bulldogs dugout throughout the delay.

“[The rain delay] got us to bond a little more. It got our energy up,” pitcher Abby Pomento said. “I think we just needed a break from the game.”

The Bulldogs came out strong after the delay with a home run by freshman Mikala Perry, putting Athens on the scoreboard. Sophomore Kelsey Bowman scored Athens’ second run of the inning when Vinton County missed a throw to second base.

Athens tightened its defense in the fourth inning and began playing more aggressive offense, stealing two bases in addition to a run scored by first baseman Jessica Whitmore, giving the Bulldogs a 3-2 lead.

Athens struck again at the bottom of the sixth inning, when Perry’s hit bounced just inside the fence, bringing home two more Bulldogs. Left fielder Kayla Dunfee also scored in the sixth, giving Athens a 6-2 lead that the defense held at the top of the seventh to win the game.

Abby Pomento lead the Athens defense with six strikeouts and allowing only three hits in 26 batters faced.

“I felt really confident up there and my catcher did, too,” Abby Pomento said. “When my catcher is confident, I’m confident. It felt good.”

After dropping its last four games, Athens used the win to continue the bonding experience.

“We’ve been struggling in our stats lately but we knew we could do this. We came in with confidence and that’s what we needed,” Abby Pomento said.  “This game really helped us pick up our confidence.”

Nick Pomento said he believes the team is coming along.

“They are really close as a team. They pick each other up,” Nick Pomento said. “When something goes bad everybody goes ‘that’s OK’ and I think that’s a big plus for us. We’re working as a team and it’s going to show on the field.”

*A photo slideshow of the game is available on the photo page.

Women in Sports

Jenni Carlson spoke with my sportswriting class about how what to do when a coach blows up. Her experience with Mike Gundy's "I'm a man! I'm 40!" rant made for an interesting discussion. 


It was nice to hear from a woman in the sports journalism world, since there really are not as many. She spoke about how others have told her that they feel she was treated differently by Gundy because she is a woman, and I have to agree. I just don't see Gundy attacking a man the way he went after Carlson, and I definitely don't see him bringing up the fact that she does not have children had Carlson been a man. 


I think this discrimination is definitely something that many women in sports journalism have to face. I know it has gotten better, but any time a women says something controversial in sports, I think one of the first defenses men come up with is “she doesn’t know anything because she’s just a girl.” While my writing has never been critiqued in that way, I have encountered that sort of argument in conversation. I think it was probably a good thing that she did not think Mike Gundy’s attack on her would have been any different if she were a man, even though many people did view it that way. 


The other thing I took from our talk with Carlson was that she is pretty lucky she was not the beat reporter. She is lucky that she does not have to deal with Gundy and can get her quotes and information from another source for her columns. It would have been interesting if she did need to keep a relationship with him. 


I think it would have been alluring to hear about how you mend a relationship after such a big blowup. She did talk about what she thought she would do, in having a conversation about the column and what they can do to get past it, and I’m sure that is what would happen. I’m just interested in hearing about an acutal situation because I am sure that it would be fairly difficult and uncomfortable. I think at some point in our careers, we all will make someone mad and it will be important to us all to figure out the best way to deal with the situation and how to move forward with that person.