Ah, another trip to Florida for the Lee University softball team. And more games against Gulf South Conference teams.
But a trip to Salem, Va., is at stake now for the Lady Flames, who challenge South Region No. 1-ranked West Florida at 5 p.m. EDT Thursday and 2:30 p.m. Friday in Pensacola. If they split those two games, there will be a deciding game Friday for the spot in the eight-team NCAA Division II national tournament May 25-29.
Lee (36-18) is in a super regional in only its second season of NCAA postseason eligibility, and Lady Flames coach Emily Russell - whose teams were frequent participants in NAIA nationals before the Cleveland school made the membership move - doesn't mind that they're having to visit the Argonauts (43-13) less than three weeks after losing three games at UWF the last weekend of the regular season.
"I'm excited to play them," Russell said Monday night. "We didn't play well the last couple of series (in the regular season). We made some errors and were not hitting well. We've seen them playing well and now we're playing well again, and I feel like it will be a much different trip."
After that visit to Pensacola, the Lady Flames went to Huntsville for the GSC tournament and then to Saint Leo, Fla., in the Tampa area and won the South Region 2 tournament last weekend while West Florida was winning the South 1 in Pensacola.
At Saint Leo, Lee defeated GSC regular-season champion Alabama-Huntsville 7-4 and won twice over 2016 national champion North Alabama, another GSC foe.
"We beat them five times this year," Russell said of UNA's Lions.
The winning pitcher in three of those, with a save in another, was freshman Taylor Moran from Silverdale Baptist Academy, who was used mainly in relief until stepping in as a starter with junior Leigh Beatenbough during the March trip to UNA when freshman Abby McKinney from Ringgold was sick.
McKinney had a fine season herself, primarily as a batter with a .347 average, a team-high 60 hits and 46 RBIs. She was the first-team all-region designated player according to the National Fastpitch Coaches Association and Monday was announced as second-team all-region by the Conference Coaches Association, which had Moran as a first-team All-South pitcher.
Moran is 14-5 with six saves and a dazzling 1.32 earned run average, and she has 93 strikeouts in 127 2/3 innings. She pitched all 10 innings in the 3-2 region championship game with only two strikeouts.
She also hit a home run in that game and has eight for the season, matching freshman catcher Brooklynn Frazier from Heritage High for first on the team. Moran is batting .285.
"She's a strong kid, a tremendous athlete. I think the sky's the limit for Taylor and all our freshmen," said Russell, a former Lee star player who's in her 15th year as head coach though only 40 years old. "As a pitcher she's tough to square up. People don't hit her hard. She changes speeds well, but her mentality is what sets her apart. She has amazing composure."
Beatenbough is tough on opponents most of the time as well. She leads Lee pitchers with 153 2/3 innings and has a 16-9 record with a 3.33 ERA and 105 strikeouts. And she's batting .294.
Freshman shortstop Kayla Louie has the team's best average, .364, and 21 stolen bases in 21 attempts. Frazier is batting .301 with 18 extra-base hits, 26 walks and 46 RBIs, and freshman second baseman Zoe Miller is hitting .285.
Sophomore third baseman and leadoff batter Stevie Baird is at .340 with seven homers, 14 doubles, 26 walks, 18 steals, 45 runs and 39 RBIs, while senior center fielder Courtney Crawford is hitting .337 with 35 runs. Junior outfielder Annabeth Pruett is at .356 and scored the winning run in the region final after leading off the bottom of the 10th with her second double of the game.
Russell admitted last year's 25-24-1 record (11-20-1 GSC) was a disappointment with a sizable group of senior players.
"We were competitive but just didn't have everything we needed," she said. "This year we knew we would be very young - talented, but we didn't know how that would go. We're starting six freshmen and a sophomore. But these freshmen are a fun group - everybody who's around them just loves their energy. They have fun and play well."
Crawford echoed that before the team left campus Tuesday.
"Even though we're young, we play very well as a team," she said. "We know how to play together, and if we're behind in a game we don't let it get us down. It's been fun. The whole season we have enjoyed playing together, and now we're hitting well and pitching well."
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.