REED CITY — Jules Griffin has completed her summer pitching schedule for Reed City and continues to prepare for what she hopes will be a memorable 2016 senior season.
Reed City ended its summer softball season with a 13-1 record. Griffin hurled the Coyotes to a pair of wins at Montabella on July 30 to end the season. The Coyotes also were 11-1 to take first place in the Local Area Teams League.
“I’m not as busy this year because I didn’t do travel ball as I did before,” Griffin said. “I’m trying to prepare for my senior year a little bit. I’m trying to determine what I want to do after high school so this is giving me a little more time. I really enjoy doing this.”
During the summer, Griffin was focusing on various parts of her pitching such as keeping her change-up down.
“I’ve been slowing down my change-up and speeding up my fastball,” she said. “That helps a lot.”
Griffin earned all-district and all-Pioneer second Dream team honors for Reed City during the spring season. She had an 11-9 record, striking out 72 batters in 112 innings, while batting .313 with 27 hits and 15 RBIs.
“It was my best hitting season by far,” Griffin said. “I hope I can keep improving with that.”
“She trains hard year round and is a team leader,” Reed City coach Roger Steig said.
Reed City had a winning record during the spring, but lost its district semifinal contest.
“I think it was a great season,” Griffin said. “I think we could have gone further than what we did. We should have have come out of the district with a win.”
During the summer, Griffin had a chance to work with many returning players and others who will be newcomers to the varsity next spring.
“I think we’ll be pretty successful,” she said. “We did lose a couple of seniors that were key to our team. We have a lot of girls coming up ready to replace them, which will help us a lot.”
Griffin wants it to be her best year. As for her softball plans after high school, “it’s still a long way off,” she said. “I’m not for sure yet.”
