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McDonald tries to take next step

Blue Devils hope to get over the hump, win district title

As an assistant coach for the last five seasons, McDonald coach Michelle Titus has seen some great softball. Every year for the past four years, the Blue Devils softball team has reached the semifinal or final of their district — losing each time.

“In softball it is any given day. Someone could be having a bad day that usually doesn’t or someone could be having a great day unexpectedly. If a certain ball goes one way instead of the other, we win,” Titus said about coming up short on district titles the last few years. “Teams are equal at that stage of play. It is just the way the game was played that day. It wasn’t for a lack of effort because this group and those groups give 100 percent all the time.”

Last year, McDonald finished 17-2 with its season ending on a 4-3 loss to Mathews in the Division IV Warren District final.

Now, the Blue Devils are back with some great strengths that they had a year ago. Catcher and second basemen Hannah Donkers is one of those strengths. She is one of just two seniors with pitcher Rachel Ward being the other.

Last season, Donkers batted .441 with while being third on the team with 25 runs batted in. As a team, they batted .389 with 53 doubles while averaging 9.9 runs per game.

“With a young team, we just keep telling them to keep going and that they can do it,” said Donkers about her advice to the younger girls. “Just keep telling them that it will get easier and that they will get it going soon enough. You try to have a good source of easement. Having Rachel and I as the main catcher and pitcher helps the team a lot. We can all focus on other things when we know we aren’t walking people or I’m dropping the ball constantly.”

In softball, pitching is more important than ever. Since the Blue Devils return an important pitcher, they can focus on getting the freshmen and sophomores better acclimated to the game.

“All of our returning girls were starters since freshmen year. Being a smaller school makes it easy to get the girls to gel together,” Titus said. “We have good pitching already and that’s huge to have that locked down already.”

McDonald lost to Cardinal Mooney in its first game of the year, 10-1. Donkers believes that loss isn’t as bad as it looks for her team.

“That game showed how young we are and how inexperienced we are. The first inning was rocky but the rest of the game was pretty good,” Donkers said. “It sucks that we’ve had the same result at the end of each year but we can overcome it. It will take time this year.”

McDonald will need its young girls to step up to have another successful year.

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