Wayne with the rough start

The Wayne Lady Bulldogs are 1-3 in their first four games, but new head coach Nikki Herrin is optimistic that her team is still putting the pieces together.

“I’m  not down at all. I’m still excited about the team and I see so much potential.

“I believe they are more than capable of having a winning season and that it only takes one game to get us going,” Herrin said.

Monday night Wayne fell to Union City 18-9.

“Monday’s loss was tough but we had some good things come from it.

“The team never gave up. In that game, it could have been easy to do that, but they didn’t.”

The game was evenly matched until the Lady Tigers had an eight-run second inning that opened up the game for them.

Wayne was unable to answer, but had double digit hits as a team in the loss.

Herrin mentioned freshmen Karsen Adams and Alyssa Hobson as helpers. Both girls had good at bats, going deep in the counts and getting on base for Wayne.

Also mentioned was Allison Ryan who had a triple.

“Allison did a great job at the plate. She is seeing the ball well and getting a piece of it.”

Last week, Wayne kicked off their season with games against Ringling and Maysville.

Oddly enough, rain hindered the Maysville game and the teams had to move to Wayne to finish, where they lost to the Lady Warriors 6-0.

“The girls had a lot of nerves and it was a weird game because of the rain.”

Adams had the lone hit for Wayne in the loss.

In their second game of the night, Wayne lost to Ringling, 7-2.

With the score 2-0 in Wayne’s favor, Ringling scored three runs in the third inning to take the lead and then added four more in the fifth.

“I don’t think the final score is a true representation of the game. We had a bad inning and the game got away from us, Herrin said.

Emily Woody led the team with hits and two RBIs.

Last Tuesday, Wayne got their first win of the season with a 2-1 besting of Empire.

“I’m really proud of the girls. I saw a lot of fight in them, which is what I asked for after the losses on Monday.”

With the game tied at one-all, Lily Whitaker singled in the 6th to score the winning run.

Brazell was in the circle for the win. She fanned 11 batters.

Wayne had six hits as a team in the win. One each from Brazell, Hobson, Whitaker, Woody, Jordynn Debaets and Kaylee Madden.

Though she hasn’t seen playing time, Herrin mentioned sophomore Myliegh Caballero as a pivotal voice in the dugout.

“Myleigh is always trying her best and does her best to maintain the energy in the dugout.”

Scheduled games to finish out the week were canceled with the exception of Friday’s game with AmPo.

To finish out their homestand, Wayne is scheduled to host Alex on Monday and Central on Tuesday.