Everyone's pitching in for Royal
By Thomas Gase tgase@theacorn.com

WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers BRINGING THE HEAT- Royal High senior Liz Tsipouras delivers a strike during last week's game at Calabasas High.

After losing 10 seniors to graduation last spring, the Royal High softball team is young and inexperienced in 2008. Luckily for the Highlanders, nothing pulls a team together like an extrainning victory.

While the RHS players are just getting to know each other, opposing teams are quickly finding out that one particular Highlander, senior Colleen Nilles, is pretty good in the clutch.

Last week at Calabasas High, Nilles hit two home runs, including a towering fly over the leftfield fence in the ninth inning, to give Royal a 32 win. The victory put the Highlanders' record at 4-2 overall and 2-0 in the Marmonte League.

After Nilles grounded out to shortstop in the first inning, Royal head coach Bill Dishon told his senior first baseman to look for her "bread-and-butter pitch."

"Today my bread-and-butter pitch was anything near the plate," Nilles said. "On my first home run I was looking for a pitch away and got it, but on my gamewinning homer I was looking for a pitch inside and got it."

Dishon is expecting big things from Nilles and has made her a team captain. Nilles has responded by batting .526 with seven RBI.

"I've given the captain duty to all my seniors, but because of the close proximity of (Nilles) at first base, we talk a lot during the game," Dishon said. "She's a very heads-up kid and a great leader."

Nilles said she doesn't mind the responsibility of being a team leader. Royal has lost most of its leadership, including the Marmonte League's Offensive Player of the Year, Kris Lesovsky, and three other AllLeague firstteam members- Kacee Cox, Brittany Clifton and Jen Mosier.

"We now have a whole different attitude," Nilles said. "We've had to do more work this year than we thought in order to win. I think a win like the one we had against Calabasas shows that we can come through as a team in tough situations."

Another Highlander that's been hitting at a high clip has been Sammi Mallory. The junior is batting .381.

"I've liked what I've seen from Mallory this year," Dishon said. "She's just starting to come into fruition. She's only a junior, so she's only going to get better."

Although the team came up big late at Calabasas, Dishon wasn't entirely pleased with the victory over the winless Coyotes (1-9 overall, 0-2 in league).

"This team works very hard; the fact that we came back and won this game is a result of all our hard work," Dishon said.

"But we're still making mistakes. It's the routine things we need to work on. By watching us you can see there aren't too many flashy plays out there, so it's the easy things we need to work on."

Something else Royal needs to work on is hitting.

Only two Highlanders, Mallory and Nilles, are batting above .300, and only two more, sophomore Amber Sanders (.294) and senior Liz Tsipouras (.286) are hitting above .235. As a team, RHS is hitting a lowly .245.

The Highlanders' pitching, however, has been stellar. Royal's hurlers, Tsipouras and Nilles, have only allowed four earned runs all season. Tsipouras, who gave up two runs in nine innings for the win at Calabasas, has a microscopic ERA of .184.

Tsipouras "struggled a little bit today, but she's going to keep us in most games this year," Dishon said. "She also knows the game very well."

Nilles said if Royal can improve its chemistry, the team has the potential to win the Marmonte League title. Last year, RHS finished in second place behind Thousand Oaks.

"We need to improve on the little things like getting the bunt down and making routine plays," Nilles said. "If we do that, we should be all right."