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Saturday, April 8, 2023, TRIB-LIVE
Fox Chapel softball coach Chris Olbrich thought his team’s results in the first week of April reflected how things would be in Section 1-5A play all spring.
Coming off a double-digit loss to first-place Shaler, the Foxes turned things around totally to hand a hot Penn Hills team its first loss of the season, 17-2.
“We played well against Penn Hills,” Olbrich said. “But with how close the teams are in the section, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Penn Hills turn around and beat Plum. I expect things are going to be fluid all year.”
The Foxes (3-3, 1-1) have found that if they are going to contend for a WPIAL playoff spot, the team will need to get contributions from all throughout the lineup. In the win over Penn Hills, senior pitcher/shortstop Hunter Taylor had a big performance.
At the plate, Taylor smashed two home runs and drove in six runs. She also struck out six batters to collect the win.
“She’s played great,” Olbrich said. “Her bat is really starting to heat up. Coming into the season, we weren’t sure how much pitching she was going to do because we didn’t want to lose her glove at shortstop. We have been working out some other players at shortstop so she can pitch more.”
With a young lineup, Fox Chapel has seen wild swings in momentum early in the season. The Foxes strung together two one-run victories over Highlands and Peters Township before opening section play with a 13-0 loss to Shaler.
“We didn’t play well against Shaler,” Olbrich said. “The Shaler game showed that we need to take every team and every pitch seriously. That game showed what we needed to do to compete.”
The Foxes are hoping they can contend by playing fundamental softball. Fox Chapel wants to try to build around its strengths.
The Foxes want to try to make as many plays in the field on defense as they can. If Fox Chapel can build around that, it may be able to escape the middle of the pack and grab a spot in the playoffs.
“We’re playing good defense,” Olbrich said. “Neither one of our pitchers is a big strikeout pitcher. We’ve been encouraging them to pitch to contact and try to field the ball. We want to make plays with our defense.”