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Sports

Tinley's Mix of Youth and Experience On Display in Win over Oak Lawn

The Titans are looking for their veterans to lead key young components, such as pitcher Miranda Stroz, and that's exactly what happened on the softball diamond Monday.

Tinley Park’s softball team has a mix of newcomers and veterans, even if some of those veterans are only sophomores.

On Monday, Titans sophomore Alyssa Gunther was an integral part of the offense as she drove in two runs and scored twice in Tinley’s  .

Despite being only a sophomore, Gunther already has a year of experience under her belt, and she feels as if she can help lead some of the team’s freshmen.

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“You just have to help your teammates out to be that leader,” Gunther said. “You can’t let them get down. You have to bring them back up.”

One of those freshmen is pitcher Miranda Stroz, who pitched seven innings Monday, using her changeup and splitter to earn the win. Stroz said the transition to the varsity level has been somewhat eye-opening.

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“It’s a lot faster,” she said. “The batters hit the ball a lot more.”

However, Stroz already is feeling less nervous on the mound.

“If I know they’re a really good team, then yeah (I still get nervous), but not as much as I was at first,” she said.

Tinley Park coach Wendy Podleisnak said her seniors are starting to learn to take an even larger leadership role.

“Sometimes it’s not always easy, because we had two great seniors last year and they were our leaders,” Podleisnak said. “So this year it was a little bit of a transition for a couple of our seniors and they’re doing a better job.”

Oak Lawn Looks to Improve its Hitting

After Wednesday’s game, Spartans coach Kelly Herlihy said hitting is where her team needs most improvement.

“(We need) more focus and more commitment to trying to improve and become better hitters,” Herlihy said.

Oak Lawn showed signs of improvement on Wednesday, especially from the top of the order. Leadoff hitter Kim Braasch was 1-for-2 with two runs scored, while No. 4 hitter Tiffanie Triner was 3-for-4 with an RBI.

“The top part of our lineup did pretty well,” Herlihy said.

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