Outstanding pitching coming to Louisiana from Texas
<i><center>Vidor, Kirbyville ready for softball action</i></center><blockquote><p align=justify>The list of Golden Triangle area softball teams remaining in the state high school playoffs isn't very long. There's Vidor in Class 4A and Kirbyville in Class 3A.
In Vidor's <b>Heather Bobbitt</b> and Kirbyville's <b>Holly Tankersley</b> the teams share something in common with the rest of the state's post-season survivors.
Outstanding pitching.
But Bobbitt and Tankersley have much more in common than that. The two seniors have been teammates for five summers on the Beaumont Blast travel team.
Next year, they'll again be teammates -- at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. Both signed with the Ragin' Cajuns, who are playing in the College Softball World Series this week.
"Pretty impressive, isn't it?" says Mike Dodson, the Beaumont Blast founder, when asked what he thinks about having his pitchers go so far, both in the high school playoffs and beyond.
"Heather and Holly will both pitch at UL and do very well," he predicts.
<center><p><a href="http://www.orangeleader.com/articles/2003/05/22/sports/sports1.txt">The rest of the story</a>
By Dave Rogers
Port Arthur News staff writer<!--
First, they have to wrap up their high school careers. Vidor, 19-3, plays Angleton tonight at 7:30 p.m. at North Shore High School. Kirbyville, 26-2, takes on Lufkin Hudson Friday at 7:30 p.m. at New Caney High School.
At stake for both Vidor and Kirbyville this weekend -- a trip to next week's state tournament.
"It's not really that much of a shocker that we're both here," Tankersley says.
"Vidor's a good team and Heather's a good pitcher. We've done what we've had to do to get where we are and, obviously, they have too."
The raven-haired Bobbitt, like Tankersley a four-year starter for her school, has a record of 19-3 this season that includes 200 strikeouts. Tankersley, a lanky 6-footer, is 24-1 with 322 strikeouts, about two per inning.
Both pitchers throw their fastballs consistently in the mid-60 mile-per-hour range.
"Once you get above 60, you're getting it up there," Kirbyville coach Jerry Gore says. "But for Holly this year, it's been about movement. In years past, she tried to throw it by you. This year, she's breaking it off all over the place.
"Heather's a lot like Holly. She tried to throw it by you when she was a freshman, but she's gotten better at what she does, too."
Bobbitt, newcomer of the year in 20-4A when she was a freshman and MVP in her district as a junior and senior, says she has work to do before pitching in college.
"Me and Holly have always done pretty good," she says, "I think we'll take it slow when get to Lafayette. I want to concentrate on getting better."
The two pitchers' high school coaches have no complaints as is.
Both girls led their teams to 1-0 wins in the last round of the playoffs.
Vidor beat Santa Fe 1-0 as Bobbitt pitched a one-hitter. Catcher Dottie Williams doubled in a run in the first inning and Vidor made sure it was the only run by executing a tricky double play in the top of the seventh, getting two outs in rundowns on the same play.
Kirbyville knocked off the state's No. 1 team, Splendora, when Tankersley pitched a four-hitter and accounted for the game's only run, a solo homer in the sixth inning. It also was Kirbyville's only hit of the game and it came from its leading hitter, who carries an incredible .626 batting average.
"Holly's a complete player," Gore says of the player who was district MVP every year except her sophomore season, when a line drive to the face knocked her out for most of the season and threatened her career. "She can play any position. Whatever you need her to do, she can do."
"There's a reason they call her 'The Tank,' Vidor coach De Robertson said.
Bobbitt's highlight this season was a 31-strikeout performance in a 16-inning game with Port Neches-Groves. Unfortunately, errors undid Vidor as PN-G scored a 5-0 win and the district championship.
"We won district for the past three years and this year we lost to PN-G in 16 innings," Bobbitt says. "It was kind of a bummer. But I believe there was a reason we lost, and this is it, that we're going so far in the playoffs. This is pretty cool."
The two girls swear there's no competition between them. They're happy to share the pitching duties.
"Sometimes she would catch for me in games," Bobbitt says. "We'd switch off games, or if one of us got tired, the other would finish. Besides, I like to sit the bench every now and then and just drink Gatorade."
The fact that both signed with UL-L isn't really a shock since Ragin' Cajun coach Stefani Lotief helped Dodson start the Blast program when she headed up her own summer team, Louisiana Image. Since taking over in Lafayette, Lotief has kept up her ties with the Blast.
But she won't get to see the girls play their big games this week. Neither will Dodson. He'll be in Oklahoma City for the Softball World Series where another one of his Blast alums, West Brook shortstop Brittany Bryant, will be playing for UL-L.
Bobbitt, Bryant and Tankersley were all teammates on the Blast team that finished fourth in the nation at the 14-and-under American Fastpitch Association championships in Chicago several summers ago. Next year, they'll all be reunited in Lafayette and can try to improve on that mark.
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