Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Pirate's mighty swing

By DAWN REISS
Published March 18, 2005

Look out, Citrus County, Ja'Vonna Grimsley is blasting away at the plate.

The Crystal River senior catcher is batting close to .500 and slugged a 250-yard over-the-

"She's done a 180-degree turn since last year," coach Justin Wentworth said. "I've know Ja'Vonna since she was 6 years old. Her brothers and I played on the same little league team and she never talked as a little kid, or even last year.

"Now she's calling out situations on the field and it's really a benefit. Whenever she's not talking, she's speaking with her bat."

Grimsley also has two doubles and a triple this season to help Crystal River earn a 6-2 overall record, 6-1 in district.

AIMING HIGH: Seven Rivers Christian's Rachael Capra won the Crystal River high jump event this month, clearing 5 feet, her season high for last season. Teammate Rachel Ebert won the discus event at Citrus High on Tuesday with a near-best 101-foot throw.

LEARNING CURVE: In coach Amy Lilley's words, Lecanto's softball team is "going through growing pains."

A varsity squad with five freshmen is unusual, but Lilley still couldn't believe she was trying out athletes at different positions last week and had all five on the field.

"We're just so young" Lilley said. "We haven't settled down yet."

Lilley said despite the Panthers' five-game losing streak, Lecanto (2-8) has improved on defense in the past two games. Lilley said the improvement came after losing to Vanguard (4-0), East Lake (11-0) and Orange Park (5-0) in a tournament, which helped toughen the Panthers. Hitting has been a problem, with Lecanto getting a lone hit against South Lake last week.

"You just can't win ball games with one hit," Lilley said. "But they're young and haven't seen a lot of pitchers like that."

BENCH TIME: Seven Rivers' lone pitcher, senior Alice Zeiss, will be out most of the season after breaking her leg while sliding into home in the fourth inning of a 12-4 loss to the Villages.

"She's our best all-around player and she was our only pitcher," coach Jim Ervin said. "Now we are trying to develop some players, which is tough on our nine-person team."

Seven Rivers (0-4) has one senior on the squad, catcher Danielle Toms, who is trying to lead the Warriors.

NORTH-SOUTH: Lecanto girls basketball coach Ron Allan will help lead the Florida Athletic Coaches Association North-South All-Star Game at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Daytona) on Saturday.

Allan will work as an assistant under Tampa Jefferson's Tom Moscat. Allan was the head coach of the FACA North team in 1996 that won 100-80 against the South.

"The talent is phenomenal," Allan said. "It's a competitive game - not like the NBA where they just score."

[Last modified March 18, 2005, 00:42:17]