Lady Seahawks take flight at 11-4
When Dirk Strunk succeeded Scott Collins as coach of the Franklin County Lady Seahawks softball team, fans wondered how he would fare.
Based on the team’s performance so far, undefeated in district play and 11-4 on the season, it seems pretty clear he and his squad are a force to be reckoned with.
“I was a little nervous at first,” said senior pitcher Sarah Ham, who’s credited with all 11 wins, and posts a 1.80 earned run average. “I was like, ‘How is he going to treat us?’ Because boys and girls are totally different. But I think because he’s a girl dad, he understands.”
“He’s patient with us but still strict when he needs to be,” said senior Michalyn O’Neal, who’s batting .341 and has a near-perfect fielding record at first base.
The team is aiming for a regional title under Strunk and a roster of seasoned talent. “When Coach Collins stepped away, I was approached about taking over,” said Strunk, who previously served as the school’s athletic director and football coach. “I’ve coached every sport under the sun, but this has been by far the most fun I’ve had in a long time.
“I’m not as intense with them as I would be out there on the football field,” he said. “But if I was, they could handle it. I try to talk to them more like I would my quarterbacks, reminding them to relax, have fun, and play loose. It’s a different kind of coaching, but it’s been rewarding.”
The current roster dates back to 2019, when Ham first stepped on the mound as a sixth grader, and wasn’t the only middle schooler to join the varsity team at the time.
“We were always a young team,” Ham said. “Everybody looked at us and said, ‘Oh, they’re just the seventh and eighth-grade team coming out to play.’ We were always seen as underdogs, but I saw that as an advantage.”
Now seniors, those same players have used their experience as underclassmen to build team unity.
“When I first started varsity, I was so scared,” O’Neal said. “I was just this little seventh grader, and it felt like a big deal. But over the years, I got used to it, I’d always played with older girls in rec ball. I learned to accept it, and the coaching staff helped me a lot.”
Under Strunk’s leadership, the Seahawks have defeated Liberty County, which eliminated them in back-to-back regional championships, and they’re set for the second game of the season on Tuesday, April 8 at home.
After falling 12-4 to Northview March 7, and then to Live Oak Sewanee 4-3 on March 11, the team’s only back-to-back losses of the season, the Lady Seahawks have won four of their last five.
Their only loss came at home March 28 to the Class 5A Chile Lady Timberwolves, who notched a 9-3 victory.
Ham did not have a stellar outing, giving up eight earned runs. The team was led at the plate by sophomore Peyton Jones and senior Charity Larkin, who both had two hits, and juniors Mateah McClendon and Averie Johnson, sophomore Lilah Millender and eighth grader Shasta Butler, who had one hit each.
The Lady Seahawks win skein began with a four-inning 19-1 victory at Wewa March 14, as Ham allowed just two hits and one earned run. Sophomore Jayla Creamer led the team with three hits.
On March 27, the Lady Seahawks needed just three innings to overwhelm FAMU high school 16-0. Junior Alexis Webb swatted three hits, including a double and a home run, as she drove in six runs.
On April 1 at Port St. Joe, Franklin County posted a 16-0 shutout of the Lady Tiger Sharks, boosted by a nine-run seventh inning.
Ham struck out six and boosted her effort by leading the team with five hits, hitting for the cycle, including two doubles. Millender had three hits, including a double.
On Friday at Taylor County, the Lady Seahawks blanked the Lady Bulldogs 11-0, as Ham twirled a one-hitter and struck out five. She and Butler led the team with two hits each, and McClendon launched a home run.
Times Editor David Adlerstein contributed to the story.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.