BY DANIEL LOCKE
FOR THE OBSERVER
BEAUREGARD —
High schools all over the state have gotten their softball seasons underway and the Beauregard High School Hornets are no different. After a season that didn’t go as planned last spring, the Hornets are excited for a chance to right the hive in 2023.
“I’m pretty excited about it,” said head coach Scott Meadows on how it feels to go into a new season. “We got a pretty young team this year and we’re starting four ninth graders. The team comradery, how they’re getting along with each other, how they’re working hard, it’s been a lot better this year.
The Hornets will unfortunately be missing an important piece of the team this year in Cooper Watson.
“We suffered one heavy blow before we ever really got going,” Meadows said. “Our junior shortstop [Watson] was our MVP last year. She blew her knee out in a basketball area game so she had to have season-ending knee surgery. The surgery went well and she is recovering good.”
After a disappointing run last season, improvement will be one of the biggest goals for the team in 2023.
“Last year wasn’t a very good year for us,” Meadows said. “We just didn’t have good team chemistry and it just was not a good year. That’s one thing we’ve been working on is changing that and work ethic being better.”
The pitching staff for the Hornets is not overly large, but it has been effective so far.
“We’ve only used two pitchers to this point,” Meadows said. “Hannah Parham, she’s a junior, and Reagan Brooks is a freshman.”
Beauregard has had some solid offensive production so far this season.
“We had a new move-in this year, her name is Bailey Abernathy,” Meadows said. “She’s signed with Shorter to play college [ball] next year. She was a great addition to our team, she’s batting like .450 right now. She’s hitting with some power. Reagan Brooks, she’s the second leading hitter on the team right now batting .526, a .947 slugging percentage. Berkely Wilson is a junior, she’s hitting .600 right now with a 1.000 slugging percentage.”
Meadows realizes that he could not lead this team alone and is appreciative of his staff.
“I’d like to give a shoutout to all my coaches,” Meadows said. “They work their tails off every day. It’s pretty much a thankless job. We got coach Bryan Wilson, we got coach Tal Morison, coach Robert Hardy and coach Cathy McDonald. They all put in a lot of time to try to help us be successful. I want to make sure they understand they are appreciated as well.”
The infield lineup is dependent on who is pitching that game.
“If Reagan is pitching, we usually put Lucy Vann over at third base,” Meadows said. “Regan plays third when she’s not pitching. Mary Peyton Dees, ninth grader, she’ll play shortstop some. Lexi Edwards is a junior, she’s been playing a lot of second base for us. Berkely is the starting first baseman, she’s done a good job in her first year playing there. We’ve got Bailey catching part of the time and we’ve got a 10th-grader, Taylor Howard, who’s been catching some.”
The outfield also sees a good amount of mixing and matching depending on what the rest of the lineup looks like.
“We got a mixture of folks out there,” Meadows said. “We’ve got Shelby Craft in the ninth grade, Lindsey Moulton in the ninth grade, Mary Peyton Dees plays out there, she’s in the ninth grade. We’ve got Aubryn Sword, she’s a 10th grader.”
A team with a lot of new faces is the story of Beauregard high school softball in 2023. Time will tell, but the Hornets seem to have the pieces to put together a solid campaign in 2023.