As the saying goes: practice makes perfect. But on the white board inside the dugout of the Wasco softball team that phrase is a little altered reading "Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect." So have the Tigers had a perfect practice yet this year? "Uh no," responded fourth year coach Sonia Wedel.
While Wedel may still ask for more, he admits this year has been a dream start with the Tigers a perfect 9-0 in the South Seqouia League.
For senior Allie Dobbs, 2017 has already been one to remember. She leads the league in home runs (7), RBIs (38) and slugging percentage (1.102) but says all of her success comes from a new found plate discipline. "When there is the one pitch that is the perfect pitch to swing at," she said adding, "(This year) we're swinging at it."
While she's a force at the plate, perhaps her biggest contributions have come behind it. "Sam had her sister as her catcher the last four years and of course that chemistry was great," said Wedel. Knowing someone would have to step up to be the new catcher for Samantha Martinez, the Tigers pitcher in all 22 wins this year, Dobbs spent her time in the offseason trying to forge a chemistry.
"Getting to be the voice of the whole field and the eyes of the field is pretty cool," she said of her new position.
It's that's grind, either in the offseason or that chase of practice perfection, that has Dobbs hearing from the community that valley is within reach. "They're always telling us 'hey we heard you're going to make it to valley this year! We heard you're going to go far in playoffs!' we just keep telling them hard work pays off and what we keep doing out here it seems to work," Dobbs said.
Wasco will play at Taft (16-8, 8-1) Friday May 5th with first pitch set for 4:00 pm.
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