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Plant City Softball Team Off To A Good Start

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By DAREK SHARP

dsharp@tampatrib.com

Published: February 25, 2009

PLANT CITY - The Plant City High softball team lost one of the best players in program history when Kendall Dawson graduated and headed to play for the University of Alabama.

But the Raiders haven't exactly fallen off the map.

With starting pitcher Megan Still and Dawson's replacement, Taylor Storey, off to great starts, Plant City opened its season with five wins in its first six games. Playing in a tournament this month in Sarasota, the Raiders went 3-1 with Still on the winning end of three shutouts.

After beginning the regular season with a 4-0 win over district opponent Sarasota Riverview, a game where Still struck out 15, the Raiders headed to Sarasota.

"Our schedule this year isn't as strong, so I wanted to get into a tournament early," softball coach Heidi Kouveras said. "There were 12 teams, some really good teams, and it turned out to be a great event for us."

It was particularly good in the first three games, shutout victories over Manatee, North Port and Braden River. Still got some help from No. 2 pitcher MacKenzie Audas, who was sensational with six strikeouts in two innings of relief work against Manatee. Audas also pitched four out of the seven innings in the 5-0 win over Braden River,

Tara "Red" Thomas, who along with Amanda Alba signed a letter of intent with Brevard Community College, had four hits against North Port in the 3-0 victory.

The lone loss was 8-4 to Lakewood Ranch, a game where Storey went 3-for-4.

"Taylor's been on fire," Kouveras said. "Behind the plate on defense, she's just as good as Kendall was. We haven't dropped off at all."

At the plate, Storey was hitting .500 through six games while Thomas was leading the team with a .571 average.

Still has gained some speed on her pitches without losing the good movement. As she has since she was in eighth grade, Still works out from time to time with University of South Florida pitching coach Monica Triner.

Although the Feb. 13-14 tournament in Sarasota was co-hosted by two of Plant City's district opponents, it was set up so the Raiders did not have to play either team. Already Sarasota and Sarasota Riverview are on the Raiders' schedule twice.

"It really worked out well for us," Kouveras said.

Plant City is at Riverview this Friday and hosts Freedom at 1 p.m. Saturday.

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