Lakes Fastpitch: Young Squad Push for Playoffs

• Head Coach

Mike Hawkins enters his third year and was the assistant coach in charge of hitting and baserunning for another three years. He's also a head coach with a club and travel team called The Washington Lady Hawks. He's starting his 18th year of coaching kids in either baseball or fastpitch. He's a 1977 graduate of Lakes as well.

• Last year's record

The Lancers finished the season with an overall record of 14-12 and 8-8 in the South Puget Sound League 3A. Franklin Pierce High School won the state championship.

• Captains

Lakes senior Stephanie Green, junior Stephanie Shupe and sophomore Lizzy Badger.

• Keys to the season

Hawkins said getting better everyday, learning from their mistakes and coming together as a team.

• Games to watch

Hawkins said all of their games will be important but Enumclaw will be the most important.

• Returning Players

Krystaloni Yockman led the team in most offensive categories. Yockman hit .500 with a slugging percentage of of 1065, totaled 23 hits, four home runs and 18 RBIs. She was the top vote getter and was a first team All-SPSL 3A outfielder.

Lakes senior catcher Stephanie Green had a .321 batting average with 18 hits  and a home run and six RBIs. Lakes senior outfielder Megan Laverdure hit a home run hit .235  with eight hits and two RBIs.

Lakes' Ally Smith, a senior outfielder, hit .310  with nine hits and seven RBI's. Lakes' Stephanie Shupe, a junior pitcher, hit .225 with 11 hits and seven RBI's with a 2.37 ERA. Shupe pitched all 124 innings during league action  and faced 527 batters, gave up 112 hits and struck out 110 batters.

• Key Losses in terms of personnel

Lakes sophomore Courtney Harter was a second team All-SPSL 3A shortstop and decided not to return and Lakes junior MacKenzie Allison was a 2-year starter at third base. The Lancers graduated three players to graduation, Kayla Clark, Katy Schafer and Jill Madson.

• Coaches prediction

"We will get to the sub-district tournament and then it is anybody's guess as to how far we can go," Hawkins said. "We are a very young team this year with 23 kids in our program, 10 of them are freshmen and eight are sophomores. As we sit right now we have three seniors this year and only one next year. So our best days are ahead of us for sure."