By STEVE CORNELIUS, CJ Sports Editor
Somerset — Every since its inception back in 2006, the Somerset Lady Jumpers have dominated All “A” 12th Region play by winning all five regional championships.
This past weekend, Somerset downed Danville 1-0 in the 12th Region Finals to notch number five and securing their second consecutive trip to the All “A” State Tournament in Louisville, Ky.
Despite the Lady Jumpers’ All “A” success, Somerset head coach David Dorsey has other things on his mind besides the All “A” State, which will be played May 8 and 9, at Skyview Park.
“The All “A” is a great thing for the small schools and we always look forward to play in it,” Dorsey commented. “But right now, we have three weeks of district seeding play to concentrate on.”
Dorsey has assembled one of the best Lady Jumper softball teams in the program’s history and they are hoping this will be the year they finally make it out of the region.
“Somerset softball has never won a district tournament game nor made it to the regional tournament,” Dorsey commented. “We will play six district seeding games over the next three weeks and all six of these games are crucial for us.”
Somerset’s 12th Region All “A” title this year did not come easy as they had to duke it out in a defensive battle against Danville in the finals before the Lady Jumpers came out on top 1-0 to advance to the state tournament, where they advanced to the Final Four last year.
In the Danville win, Samantha Dorsey singled with two outs in the top of the fifth. Then, Jessica Coffey doubled through the infield to score Dorsey for the lone run.
Somerset had runners on base in the second, fourth, sixth and seventh innings, but could not come up with the keys hits to drive in more runs.
But with a strong pitching effort by junior hurler Paige Gadberry, the Lady Jumpers could get away with only one run on the board. Gadberry only gave up one hit and struck out seven batters in her shutout win.
“That is the best I have ever seen Paige pitch,” Dorsey commented. “She had control of all her pitches and she took charge of the game just like we needed her to.”
Somerset made it into the 12th Region All “A” Finals after drubbing Monticello 15-0 in three innings.
Most of the Lady Jumpers’ offense was generated by picking up a total of 13 walks. However, seven of the Lady Jumpers’ nine batters collected at least one base hit apiece. Drewcilla Jackson led the Lady Jumpers with two hits and two RBIs.
Somerset got a strong pitching effort out of freshman Lauren Rice, who gave up only three hits and struck out three batters in a shutout win.
“For the most part, our pitching and defense has been there for us, but our hitting has been all over the place,” Dorsey said. “In our first five games, we had 13 strikeouts and 25 walks at the plate, which is the kind of strikeout/walk ratio you want to have. But in the last six games, we have struck out 27 times and only walked 14 times, and we have not been able to get the timely hits.”
The Lady Jumpers’ struggles at the plate cost them a 4-2 setback to Danville at home on Monday. In that loss, Somerset only produced six hits. Somerset’s two runs came off a Jessica Coffey triple off the left center fence to score Dorsey in the first inning. In the sixth inning, Dorsey hit an infield single up the middle to score Emily Ousley.
Dorsey hopes his team’s hitting woes will straighten out over the next three weeks.
“My exact wishes for this team is for them to want to win as much as I do,” Dorsey said. “The game itself should be a motivating factor for these girls and if they play to their potential the sky is the limit for them.”
Somerset (8-3) will play in the Keith Blair Memorial Tournament this upcoming weekend.
