ESCANABA---The district championship was fun. But now the Escanaba High School softball team is looking for an even bigger prize: a regional championship.
The Eskymos will face Howard City Tri-County in the MHSAA Division Two regional semifinals Saturday morning at 10:00.
And Eskymo Coach John LaMarch says the recipe for success is actually pretty simple.
"We have to be at the top of our game, and we have to play our game," the veteran coach said during a break in Thursday's practice. "We can't worry too much about what they have. If we do the three things that we should: defense, pitch, and hit, we should be all right."
Howard City Tri-County has just a 10-20 record this season, but the Vikings managed to beat Big Rapids, 13-9, and Cedar Springs, 5-2, in their district last weekend.
The Eskymos (23-14), meanwhile, relied on the pitching of Codi Jenshak and good defense to beat Petoskey, 2-1, and Cheboygan, 2-0, on Monday.
The Eskymos know they will need more offense this weekend.
"We need to start hitting a lot (better)," Eskymo senior Erin Gregoire said. "Especially if we're gonna have faster pitchers, we're need our bad speed (higher), and hit the ball."
"We need to get our bats going more," fellow Eskymo senior Mallory Zimmerman agreed. "We were a little bit slow (at districts). But I think our bats are gonna pick up at the right time."
The other semifinal pits Fremont against the Cadillac Vikings. LaMarch says that Fremont is probably the regional favorite, featuring a pitcher who will play at Grand Valley State.
LaMarch says the girls are proud of their district championship, and are looking forward to this weekend's challenge.
"There's 32 teams left (in the state), and we're one of them," LaMarch said. "In our game, you just never know who is gonna come out on top. I like our chances going into this second round of playoffs."
"I'm really excited," Zimmerman said. "We had a goal set at the beginning of the season to make it out of districts. And we got our goal!"
The Eskymos will have a practice at Lemmerand Park Friday afternoon before boarding a charter bus at 2:00 for the long trip to West Branch. We will post pictures and videos from the girls' regional games right here on rrnsports.com Saturday night.
Click the thumbnails in the "ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS" box to see videos of Coach LaMarch and the girls talk about this regional tournament.
The Eskymos will face Howard City Tri-County in the MHSAA Division Two regional semifinals Saturday morning at 10:00.
And Eskymo Coach John LaMarch says the recipe for success is actually pretty simple.
"We have to be at the top of our game, and we have to play our game," the veteran coach said during a break in Thursday's practice. "We can't worry too much about what they have. If we do the three things that we should: defense, pitch, and hit, we should be all right."
Howard City Tri-County has just a 10-20 record this season, but the Vikings managed to beat Big Rapids, 13-9, and Cedar Springs, 5-2, in their district last weekend.
The Eskymos practiced at Lemmerand Park Thursday.
The Eskymos know they will need more offense this weekend.
"We need to start hitting a lot (better)," Eskymo senior Erin Gregoire said. "Especially if we're gonna have faster pitchers, we're need our bad speed (higher), and hit the ball."
"We need to get our bats going more," fellow Eskymo senior Mallory Zimmerman agreed. "We were a little bit slow (at districts). But I think our bats are gonna pick up at the right time."
The other semifinal pits Fremont against the Cadillac Vikings. LaMarch says that Fremont is probably the regional favorite, featuring a pitcher who will play at Grand Valley State.
LaMarch says the girls are proud of their district championship, and are looking forward to this weekend's challenge.
"There's 32 teams left (in the state), and we're one of them," LaMarch said. "In our game, you just never know who is gonna come out on top. I like our chances going into this second round of playoffs."
Eskymo senior Mallory Zimmerman on regionals.
The Eskymos will have a practice at Lemmerand Park Friday afternoon before boarding a charter bus at 2:00 for the long trip to West Branch. We will post pictures and videos from the girls' regional games right here on rrnsports.com Saturday night.
Click the thumbnails in the "ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS" box to see videos of Coach LaMarch and the girls talk about this regional tournament.
