HASLETT - Spring has sprung at Haslett High School but the weather is delaying the game. The Girl's Varsity Softball team has struck out trying to practice outside the last couple weeks with the field conditions being more than unfavorable.

"Right now the conditions suck, it’s really soft and mushy and its really hard to field a ground ball and run in because you cant gain your traction," says Junior Captain Samantha Munson. The team has only been able to get outside a couple times, which is not unusual for this time of year when it comes to spring sports.

Haslett High School offers six spring sports for females and they all have run into the same problem when it comes to practicing outside. "It’s tough to get out like right now I know the fields are pretty you know in Michigan I’m sure unless you have a turf field which we don't um fields are pretty wet and most of our practices so far have been inside so we’re waiting to get outside,” says Darin Ferguson, Haslett High School Athletic Director and Assistant Principal.

For sports like softball getting outside is very important for aspects of the game such as live pitching and grounders in the dirt. "It’s huge, ya know a pitching machine is going to throw it in one spot, at one speed and you kind of just get your timing on that. Where if you have live it helps my pitcher, it helps the catcher, it helps the batter, it’s helping three people um everybodys getting practice everybody is working, the three people that are involved so I’d prefer to go live all the time," says Head Coach Dan Ruhstorfer.

The rain the past couple of weeks has forced the team to split their pitching practice between live pitching when they can get outside and a pitching machine inside.A different ball is also used when practicing inside which is a lot softer than a normal softball and bounces more easily. "Hitting off of the machine is a lot different than hitting live pitch, so mainly we have been practicing hitting live pitch which I think will be better for us," says Munson.

Although splitting time between the two has posed a challenge, the team is handling it well. "We did a lot better than I thought we were going to do against the live pitching so hopefully we will score more runs this year and that will help us win more games," says Junior Captain Keelin McManus.

Everyone who tried out for the varsity team made it this season since the offering of six varsity female sports dwindled the numbers down. There is no JV team this season causing the incoming freshman to compete with the upperclassman for playing spots. The team is very young making practice a learning spot for all. "We’ve been practicing with higher speeds so I think we will be able to hit mainly off all of the pitchers," says Munson.

This team has one main focus this season when the anthem stops and the game begins: "Pitching, it always comes down to pitching. Throwing strikes, making the plays we should make all the time and cutting out the mistakes and we should compete," says Ruhstorfer.

Ferguson is pretty confident that competing will be the least of this teams worries as most of the sports offered in the spring will have a chance to compete for a CAAC Red Championship title. "It’s nice to see your student athletes at Haslett be competitive in almost all the sports that we participate in," says Ferguson.

With a very young team and it still being early in the season the girls are focusing on competing in hitting and pitching in preparation for their first couple games as a team. "I think the first couple games might be a little rocky just with some of just the basic things but after that we’ll start to get the hang of it and it should come back I think," says McManus.