Van Wade
The Orange Leader
WEST ORANGE
April 30, 2008 06:46 pm
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Every season just seems to get better and better for the West Orange-Stark Lady Mustang softball program.
Ditto for junior Lady Mustang ace pitcher Rebekah Ragsdale.
It’s not easy when your on deck and you have to face “The Bek”.
Without question, Ragsdale has been in the “middle” of the WO-S uprising, starting almost every game since her freshman season.
WO-S never made the playoffs before in school history until 2006. Now they’ve made it three straight years, including winning their first-ever playoff series when the Lady Mustangs downed Shepherd 5-0 and 9-1 in the Class 3A Region III bidistrict playoffs last week.
Ragsdale was extremely impressive as a freshman when she captured the Orange Leader Newcomer of the Year honor. As a sophomore, she was chosen as the Leader’s Pitcher of the Year.
Those campaigns were impressive indeed, but her junior campaign tops those.
Ragsdale owns a 22-9 record on the hill. In 177 innings of work, she has allowed a mere 59 hits and has an earned run average of 0.59. She has posted 315 strikeouts and has allowed just 30 walks. She also leads the Lady Mustangs with a .417 batting average.
“I thought I had a good year last year but I really wanted to improve my game so more,” said Ragsdale. “My fastball has always been pretty good but I knew I could improve in other areas. My riseball has gotten a whole lot better. I’ve also relied a lot on my curve more, especially in those 3-2 situations and third outs.”
Playing the game year-round and being coached by her father, Lady Mustang head coach Randy Ragsdale, has been a plus.
“I played a lot of fall ball with the Crush and that helped out a bunch,” said Ragsdale, who is also a member of the Fillies drill team. “I enjoy the game so much. I never get tired of it.”
Coach Ragsdale loves having the honor of coaching Rebekah.
“We do our best to separate father-daughter and coach-player,” said Coach Ragsdale. “There’s no doubt, we do talk plenty of softball at home but for the most part, she’s the one that brings it up.”
One thing about Rebekah, Coach Ragsdale doesn’t have to push her.
“The best things about Bek (Rebekah) is her work ethic and how she studies the game,” said Coach Ragsdale. “She’s constantly looking for that edge on hitters and studies every batter. She knows the tendencies of every hitter in our district.”
There are a few differences from the regular high school season and the offseason that Coach Ragsdale enjoys.
“I love it when our season starts, that allows Britni (Revis) to catch her and not me,” said Coach Ragsdale. “It’s hard bending down like that all the time when you reach a certain age.”
There’s one other thing Coach Ragsdale likes.
“One good thing is, Paula (Coach Ragsdale’s wife and Rebekah’s mother) and I pretty much no where our kid is 95 percent of the time,” said Coach Ragsdale. “That’s a good thing this day and age.”
Rebekah enjoys hanging out with “Pops” as well.
“Some people might think it would be hard to hang around your Dad all the time but that doesn’t phase me at all,” Ragsdale said. “We’re constantly on the road all the time as a family during the summer playing ball everywhere. We’ve been doing that for years and years and we all love it.”
Ragsdale felt the Lady Mustangs, who finished second in District 21-3A, dug down deep early in going on to have their best season ever.
“We didn’t let ourselves get down after we lost the first district game of the season to Hamshire-Fannett,” said Ragsdale. “We bounced back pretty quick, going to Silsbee and beating a Silsbee team that many thought would win district. From then on, we played really well in a district that was very good.”
Ragsdale enjoys the closeness she has with her teammates as they get ready to take on Region III power West Columbia in the area round of the playoffs in a best-of-three series. Game One is slated for 5:30 p.m. Friday at Deer Park High School with Game Two to follow 30 minutes after Game One. Game Three, if necessary, will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at the same location.
“We’ve had such a fun year and we all get along so well,” said Ragsdale. “We’ve accomplished more than any other WO-S team and we’ll always have a special bond. We know West Columbia has a super program. They went to state two years (2005, 2006) and won it once (2006). We’re going to go out and play hard. We really think more pressure is on them with the past they have. We just won our first-ever playoff series, so we’re going to go in looking to have some fun and playing to the best of our abilities and not worry about pressure.”
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