Getting better: Eastern Greene softball program continuing to develop under Tommy Bell

Eastern Greene head softball coach Tommy Bell didn't have lofty expectations entering this season.

Bell is in his second year leading the Thunderbirds. Before his arrival — and before the COVID-19 pandemic — Eastern Greene won just one game in the previous five seasons.

But with a plethora of experience in athletic administration and professional baseball, Bell was up for the challenge. He knew what needed to happen to get the program moving in the right direction.

"We raised the bar on them because they knew they had a program that had lost so many games, and it was just a participation sport. They know now that this is not a participation sport," Bell said. "This is a sport about playing our best nine or 10 players and looking for wins."

He's found some success in his first two years. Eastern Greene won six games last year. Bell still knew they had a lot of work to do, but that was a start.

This year, Bell wanted his players to continue developing consistency and good habits. And the results indicate that's happened: the Thunderbirds are 7-6 with eight regular season games remaining.

The program has come a long way to get to that point. Athletic director Aaron Buskirk, who coached softball before Bell, has noticed.

"They've grown immensely. I mean, bounds of growth," Buskirk said. "And it mainly started in the offseason. We've got a lot of kids that... I wouldn't say that they're just one-sport athletes, but they came in and did the time and in the offseason, and that's helped out. They've kind of bought into to coach Bell's philosophy."

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On-field development

Throughout her high school career, the Thunderbirds have leaned on now-senior Indy Workman.

Bell was hoping his message would resonate even more this year and that a core would start to form for the future.

Workman has still been arguably the most important player for Eastern Greene this season, as the team's ace and batting second. She's posted a 1.154 OPS with three doubles, three triples, a home run, 16 runs scored, and seven steals.

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But other players have improved this season and Workman will leave the team in good hands.

Sophomore first baseman Bailee Tieman has been productive, with a 1.100 OPS and 18 runs scored out of the leadoff spot.

Junior Mallory Shelton has taken a big step this season. After recording a .707 OPS last year, she's up to a team-high 1.139 this year. She's smacked four home runs, driven in 15 runs, and scored 13. And she's stolen 12 bases.

Sophomore Jessica Hovious has put up solid numbers on the mound in 19 innings of work. She transferred to Eastern Greene this year from Bloomfield, where she started in center field as a freshman.

This year, Hovious owns a 2.95 ERA and a 1.368 WHIP, with a 9:4 strikeout to walk ratio. She's likely to handle the bulk of the pitching next year with Workman gone. At the plate, she has a 1.127 OPS with five extra-base hits, and she's swiped 13 bases.

But perhaps most encouraging for Bell is the development he's seen across the rest of the roster. He's seeing his team clean up some of the little things that caused problems in the past.

"We're a lot better defensively in the outfield," Bell said. "We had so many dropped fly balls last year. And now, we're not dropping fly balls. So that's a big headway for us."

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A lot of Eastern Greene's roster doesn't play travel softball, so the coaches have had to spend a lot of time on fundamentals over the past few years. It's starting to make a difference. Bell noted the improvements from sophomores Bianca and Melanie Wyatt, who both played only JV last year but are now starting on varsity.

Bell said the team's player leadership — captains Workman, Shelton, and senior Rylee Utter — have helped with the teaching and development for the younger players.

"They'll grab the freshmen and they'll do teaching off to the side. And that's what we want, that the coaches are not having to teach all the time," Bell said. "When we've got players that can pull them off to the side and give them a tip here or a little help there, that helps us a lot."

Setting the foundation

Bell felt one of the biggest areas of which Eastern Greene softball needed growth was its pipeline.

It wasn't just that Thunderbirds teams in recent history weren't winning games. The structure wasn't in place to develop talent early enough like a lot of other schools were doing, he felt. The key to a successful future for Eastern Greene softball relied on improving youth league teams in the area, increasing school involvement in those programs, and turning them into breeding grounds for future Thunderbirds.

Bell thinks those efforts are going well so far and that the program, as a whole, is trending in the right direction. He said they have four U12 players starting for the U14 team, and he said one of them could already start for the varsity team.

"Our U14 team, which is community league based, is really, really strong and having a good year," Bell said. "We're excited about some of the new players that will come up. We're just going to start loading it so every year, we get better and better. It just takes time."

Facility improvements help

Eastern Greene also made upgrades to its facility this year, which Buskirk and Bell said has also helped. The field has a new backstop and new dugouts, along with an enclosed and heated batting facility for winter. It's a noticeable difference to those within the program. It shows the financial commitment to the sport from the school board and administration, and more adequately sets up the players for success.

"It's helped a lot," Buskirk said. "(It's important to show) that we care about those two programs, baseball and softball. The (fields) hadn't been touched for many years before that. There's still some things that need to be done — hopefully this summer, after the season's over, to do some more work."

Vision going forward

Bell's vision for Eastern Greene is eventually winning a Southwestern Indiana Conference title. The Thunderbirds are 3-1 in conference play this season, with three games left — including Clay City and Linton-Stockton, the two teams ahead of Eastern Greene in the standings.

He thinks his team has a chance at winning a sectional playoff game — which would be the first in a long time for Eastern Greene. The Thunderbirds take on South Knox in the first round of sectionals.

Bell knows that playoff success and conference titles won't come overnight. But he's confident that as the program's pipeline and foundation grow even more, Eastern Greene can do it.

"I think we'll get there as we continue to work with our middle school and elementary kids, give them more opportunities, using our indoor facilities, (using) a more clinical approach, and working with our coaches," Bell said. "As they get introduced and they start to become travel players, we can be really good. The future looks bright for Thunderbirds softball. These are the parts we've got to go through right now.

Follow Herald-Times sports reporter Seth Tow on Twitter @SethTow, or email him at stow@heraldt.com.