Lady Panthers pounce on Demonettes in 16-1 win

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — “Panthers pounce” might be a little punny, but it’s exactly what the Perry Lady Panthers did to the Warner Robins Demonettes during Wednesday’s softball game.

It only took the Lady Panthers four innings to gain a 15-run advantage and mercy rule the game, sending their record to 5-0 on the season.

Sometimes when you’re up by a big amount, it’s hard to keep your players engaged. For a team that’s put up double digit runs in four of their five games, it’s easy to see how that may be a problem.

Head coach Daniel Wood, however, challenged his players to keep the same intensity regardless of the score.

“So we actually challenged our girls before the game. We told them whether we’re up 10 or 15 or down 10 or 15, we should still have that same intensity,” Wood said. “I respect their coach a lot. She’s a great lady and works really hard with her girls. If you were just a spectator watching you would think sometimes that Warner Robins was winning with how loud they were in the dugout. So I challenged our girls: no matter the score just stay in the game, make it fun.”

The Lady Panthers seemed to emphasize the “make it fun” part of Wood’s challenge, as all throughout the game the girls were all smiles after a big play or a score, whether it was theirs or a teammates.

There were plenty of big plays to be had, though until the last couple of innings it usually wasn’t from the swing of the bat.

Warner Robins started Leanne Butts, who while young and talented, has struggled to find stability early in her varsity career.

The Lady Panthers were the recipients of a lot of walks on Wednesday, and you could tell a few of the girls were just itching to swing the bat.

While eventually they did put some balls into play, Wood focused on taking the early opportunity to hone some other skills.

“Those are good opportunities for us to learn tracking the ball. It’s a great opportunity to practice hitting to right field for our right-handed batters, just staying back and letting it get deeper,” Wood said. “We kind of knew the pitching we would see this week, so we prepared our girls on staying back and trying to work everything to right field, that was our approach this game. Any player can get over-eager up there just ready hit, especially when you have a lot of balls, you’re just ready to swing. We had a couple that chased, but overall our girls did a good job adjusting to what we see. We’re probably going to see that same type tomorrow so we’re probably going to have that same approach tomorrow against Westside.”

The Lady Panthers have three games next week: Monday, Aug. 28 at home against the Veterans Lady Warhawks at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 29 at home again against the Spalding Lady Jaguars at 5:55 p.m., and they’ll finish the week on the road Thursday, Aug. 31 against the Howard Lady Huskies at 5 p.m.

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