Dominance gives way to parity

Nick Christensen

Thursday, March 24, 2005 | 8:59 a.m.

Lindsey Callaway's 10-3 pitching record is impressive, no doubt. It puts her among the state leaders and has Palo Verde living up to the preason billing as one of the state's top programs for 2005.

But a 10-3 record hardly measures up to the standards of recent high school softball seasons, and that comes as a relief to many of the teams -- Palo Verde included -- that have labored in recent years against the dominance of one team, or more accurately one pitcher -- Centennial's Bulldogs and Shannon Crisp.

"We talked about goals at the beginning of the year," said Palo Verde coach Jaime Ditto. "It's a realistic goal of winning our division. Before, it was a really high goal. Now it's a realistic goal, and everyone plays with a lot more confidence.

"We've been the bridesmaid to Centennial for a while."

But Crisp is gone, following up her 22-3 senior season with the Bullogs by going undefeated in her seven starts at UNLV, and the mantel is there for someone else to take. Callaway's pitching makes Palo Verde one of those contenders.

She had seven strikeouts and allowed six hits, including a game-winning RBI single snug on the first base line as the Panthers lost to Granada Hills (Calif.) 3-2 in Wednesday's Silver Division semifinal at the Fred Davison Memorial Tournament in Spring Valley.

Along with Silverado's Kelly Griego and Douglas' Brittany Puzey, Callaway has been mentioned as one of the state's top pitchers this season.

Puzey led the pack, but Tigers coach Jim Puzey said Wednesday that his daughter is probably done for the year after her thumb was broken in a game last week. Although optimistic that she might make a return in time for the state tournament in May, he said surgery, and a 12-week recovery, is more likely.

So while the focus, as always in softball, is pitching, there is parity after years to Crisp and Wooster's Brianne McGowan before her.

"From a regional standpoint, it's a lot more equal," Ditto said. "It's more of an offensive game, because there's not a dominant pitcher. You're not going to strike out 15 -- everybody's got to bring offense."

Around the town

Start each day with a doubleheader.

That's how it was for the Las Vegas High softball team, which went 7-1 in a tournament in Florida this week.

"They're so wiped out from playing, then going to the park afterwards," Wildcats coach Kevin Jones said. "By 9 o'clock they about crashed, then we wake up and play again."

Las Vegas catcher Caroline Fernandez was the offensive star of the tournament for the Wildcats, hitting three consecutive home runs in one game, including a grand slam. Jones said that Alyssia Delatorre, who missed last season because of injury, has also been a pleasant surprise with four home runs.

The Wildcats next play Monday, when they play host to Sierra Vista.

"We're just getting some offense rolling, trying to go about things at new positions and see who can play where," Elliott, in his first year at Liberty, said Wednesday. "As far as hitting off good pitchers, we did pretty well."

Catcher Stacie Hall is hitting .450, the highlight for the second-year Patriots.

"The stats that I've gotten, no, she wasn't hitting like this at all last year," Elliott said. "She's driving the ball with power too. I'd like to think it's the coaching, but it's another year's experience."

"We're talking about one starting junior and one starting senior and the rest come from the sophomore and freshman class," Morgan said. "I think with the young team like we have, I'm pretty happy with where we're at and how we did."

Sophomore pitcher Hailey Hachtel is off to a 7-4 start, coming along after a 10-2 freshman year for the Blazers.

"I was, of course, cautious about the games I had her pitch last year," Morgan said. "She's pitched a lot more games (this year) than she's pitched in her whole life already. She's worked hard all summer on her pitching. She's really progressing."

Morgan said that Hachtel is getting support from great fielding.

"We're playing some phenomenal defense, just phenomenal defense," Morgan said. "We're starting two freshman middle infielders ... that's not easy to do."

Durango plays host to Coronado on Tuesday.

"We're not going into every ballgame, when I had Shannon (Crisp) on the mound going into every game I was feeling pretty positive we're going to win," Centennial coach Mike Livreri said. "Now it's ... I'm still confident but we've got to do more things better to win. We can't make errors and win."

At 5-7, the defending state champion Bulldogs are quickly learning what life's like not having a pitcher capable of striking out 15-plus batters any given day.

"We have to realize they're going to have to outscore teams," Livreri said. "It's not going to be 1-0, 2-0 anymore."

Crisp wasn't the only key player to move on last summer.

"We only have five returners, so most of them didn't have Shannon," Livreri said. "We're playing kind of young, we've been making quite a few errors and playing young but once we hopefully are in league, we're jelling a little bit better because that's what all these other games are for anyway."

Centennial will play Eldorado at Centennial on Tuesday.