Elyria Catholic softball: Youthful experience gives Panthers high hopes

Looking at the roster, Elyria Catholic appears to be a young and inexperienced team.

Over half of the starting lineup will be underclassmen. A sophomore will be the ace pitcher, a freshman will be catching, another sophomore will replace co-Lorain County Ms. Softball Annika Bredel at shortstop. Although the Panthers are young, they have experience. They do lose Bredel, but will return every other main contributor from last year. For a reminder, EC won 16 games and a conference title a season ago.

“That’s what we’re banking on this year,” Elyria Catholic coach Terrel Dixon said. “Those kids that are juniors and sophomores, our players are willing to play and ready to play anywhere on the field.”

Dixon served as co-coach previously with Jim Piazza, and now he’s solely in charge of the program. The EC grad has coached most of these girls since travel softball with his daughter, Savannah Dixon, as a junior.

“It’s good to come back to my alma mater and be here with my daughter and the kids that we’ve coached throughout the years starting back in 12U,” Dixon said. “It’s good to be in one place here to see it through. The best part about it is that these kids work hard, so that makes it exciting and makes it easy for me to come up and be with them every day.”

The Panthers return three seniors, and Grace Belza is a team captain. She is the Panthers’ leadoff hitter and one of their more experienced and steady players. She batted .468 last year and is looking forward to her last season.

“I think we’re going to go very far this year,” Belza said. “We have a lot of players that have so much talent, and this is my last year playing, so I’m going all out every game.”

Dixon will play third base, and the junior as the highest returning batting average of .550. The other two juniors, Isabelle Niederst and Natalie Saddler, will be in the outfield.

The two sophomores in the Elyria Catholic lineup will be two of its more impactful players in Hannah Brooks and Harper Morgan. Both were named to The Morning Journal preseason watch list, and will play big roles.

Brooks will be the one who steps in at shortstop for Bredel, and she also hit the ball well last year with a .525 average and 30 RBIs. Morgan is the Panthers’ ace, and will control the circle for most games. As a freshman, she went 13-4 with a 3.14 ERA and 148 strikeouts.

Freshman Lillian Ciryak will be the Panthers’ catcher this season, but also played shortstop for the first time in a scrimmage against Avon on March 26 with Brooks not in the lineup. Paytin Baehr is another freshman who caught in the scrimmage. Na’tavia Thomas played in right field, and will be the second pitcher this season.

“We had Annika last year who everyone knows about, and now we all have to step up and make plays and go into positions that we’ve never played,” Belza said. “We’re all working really well, we practice hard every day.”

The new season for Elyria Catholic begins at 5 p.m. on March 28 at Holy Name.

“I’m really excited for this year,” Belza said. “We have a lot of talent and we have a lot of freshman, too. I just love working with them because I know they have so much talent. When I leave, the following years are going to be exciting.”