The past few weeks have been anything but the down season for the Raider softball team.
Madison County, 21-11 last year, has already played three weeks worth of summer softball, recently returning from a Thursday-Friday trip to Greenbrier.
“Everything is going really good right now,” said head coach Doug Kesler, who enters his 11th season.
The Raiders, who barely missed the state playoffs last year, went 6-0 in the Greenbrier tournament, beating host Greenbrier, Harris County, Parkview on Thursday and North Hall, Appling County and Thompson on Friday.
“That’s the first time we’ve been to Greenbrier and won all six,” Kesler said.
The Raiders played a lot of new blood in their perfect road trip to Augusta. With starting shortstop Taylor Morgan in Peru on a mission trip, Madison County employed the services of three freshmen shortstops and rising sophomore Abby Atkinson.
Kesler noted one moment in the tournament in which Madison County only had two seniors and two juniors on the field. The rest were freshmen or sophomores.
While these are just exhibition games, Kesler said that he expects these young players will contribute when the games count for something in the fall.
“The girls that we take are kids that we think have a chance to help us at out the varsity level,” said Kesler, whose team tied for the best regular season record last year in the region last year. “They get to show us what they can do.”
Madison County will move on to host its annual summer camp next week, playing 10 games over the course of that event.
Summer softball will then shut down until the very end of July when Madison County will host several teams July 28, 29 and 30, playing doubleheaders each day.
By the time Aug. 1 roll tryouts roll around, Madison County will have played in about 30 games. By comparison, the Raiders played 32 games between the regular season and region tournament last year.
Summer can truly be a busy time for a high school softball player. Kesler notes several are managing travel ball schedules in addition to summer league.
