Postseason begins Thursday for NHS softball

By Jason Peake

Daily Mail Sports Editor

NEVADA -- The road to a repeat begins in Bolivar. The defending Class 3 state champs, the Nevada High School softball team begins district play Thursday. The top seed in District 11, the Tigers play the winner of Strafford and Logan-Rogersville at 4:30 p.m. in Bolivar. Now 18-5 on the season, Nevada has its goals set high. A repeat is the ultimate goal, of course.

Nevada Coach Tammy Holcomb said her team is focusing on the mental parts of the game.

"Focus and finishing," Holcomb said. "We're working really hard on those two areas this week. Those are the mental parts of the game that I feel that our team is needing to work through."

As far as the physical aspects of the game, Holcomb said she's been preaching a couple of things.

"This week we're talking about doing our best at every at-bat and every defensive play, as well," Holcomb said. "This goes back to the mental part of the game and being prepared."

Season stats

Senior shortstop Tiffani Long has driven in a team-high 29 runs this season. Long has .397 batting average and a team-high six home runs. Nikki O'Bryan leads the Tigers in hits with 43 and in batting average (.558). Other team leaders in batting average are Mackenzie Pritchett (.469), Olivia Culbertson (.329) and Tori Dahmer (.314). Culbertson has 21 RBIs and O'Bryan has a team-high 32 runs scored.

Christian Novak has an 0.82 ERA on the mound. In 23 games and 140 innings pitched, Novak has struck out 199 and allowed 89 hits. Novak has allowed just 18 earned runs.

She's pitched every game this year for the Tigers.

District 11 Tournament

Today's games

(4) Strafford (13-13) vs. (5) Logan-Rogersville (8-17), 4:30 p.m.

(3) Bolivar (16-9) vs. (6) Buffalo (7-15), 6 p.m.

Thursday, Oct. 6

(1) Nevada (18-5) vs. winner of Strafford-Logan-Rogersville, 4:30 p.m.

(2) Marshfield (15-6) vs. winner of Bolivar-Buffalo, 6 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 8

Title game, noon.