By Titus Mohler
Special to the News-Herald

King’s Fork varsity softball has begun the 2012 season with hopes of continuing its winning ways.

Richard Froemel returns for his sixth year as coach, and he is up-front about his take on the team.

“High expectations,” he said. “I feel confident that we should be at least one of the top three teams in the district.”

Last year the team finished the regular season with a 10-8 record, earning a spot in the Southeastern District tournament.

This success was not a fluke. King’s Fork has won at least 10 games every year Froemel has coached.

Deep Creek is proving to be a bit of a thorn in the team’s side, however. They eliminated the Lady Bulldogs from the tournament last year, and the Lady Bulldogs’ first game of this season on March 13th was also a loss to Deep Creek.

“We lead that game all the way up to the bottom of the sixth. We were up 3-0,” Froemel said.

Freshman Sydney Wash had been throwing a two-hitter. After some hits by Deep Creek and some errors by King’s Fork, though, it became a 6-3 loss.

The seniors on this year’s team are some of the most notable returning players.

“I’ve got four seniors this year,” he said. “They’ve been with me four years.”

The seniors are Taylor Davis, who returns at catcher, Monica Logwood at shortstop, Niki Cuevas at third base and Megan Blythe in centerfield.

Froemel highlighted what these four players bring to the team.

“Their knowledge of the game, their ability, their skill level,” he said.

Expanding even beyond just the seniors, Froemel described the depth of commitment that many of the girls have shown to the sport.

“I’m very fortunate that out of last year’s team I had (only) one girl that did not play year around,” he said. “They play with some good teams. Experience is key.”

Some new faces on the team, however, are talented enough to be contributing already.

“Got some good ninth graders that have real good potential,” Froemel said.

Wash is one of them, and she is the team’s starting pitcher. The other freshman is Shaina Holland at first base.

Fostering team unity by helping the freshmen integrate into the mix of personalities has been one of Froemel’s early goals.

“We’ve gone out, and we’ve done things — we’ve had a team dinner one night,” he said. “So, just getting them acclimated with playing with girls that are juniors and seniors, because they both played JV last year.”

Froemel highlighted two impact players who are returning juniors: Jennifer Delucia at second base and Autumn Vick in right field.

Brittany Raynor is Froemel’s next go-to pitcher after Wash, and Ashley Roten completes the pitching squad. Raynor and Roten, both sophomores, share left fielder duties, as well.

In terms of improvement, Froemel knows what is necessary this year.

“Really just coming out and playing our best game right off from inning one,” he said. “Mentally coming out and starting strong, not waiting until third or fourth inning when you start picking up hits back-to-back and get runs. I want to do that from inning one.”