Apr 6, 2006 By Bobby Fox For The 3 min read

Jefferson-Morgan head softball coach Scott Moore used a familiar phrase to describe the rather daunting task of replacing five senior starters that he and his team are facing this season: “Everyone has to go through it once in a while.” Gone from last year’s 11-7 (5-5) squad are ace pitcher Erica Smoggie along with four of her supporters in the field and at the plate in Brittany Coles, Carly Largent, Allison Tenney and Kristie Volchko.

While the losses are pretty heavy, the Rockets appear to have at least a few players that they are confident in to step up.

Taking over the lion’s share of the mound duties this season will be sophomore pitcher Emily Cottle. Last year, Cottle went 6-5 for the Rockets and, according to Moore, has worked hard this past summer in getting ready for the number one spot in the rotation.

Junior pitcher Sarah Olson will take over Cottle’s number two spot.

“Sarah is really working at it this year,” Moore said. “I think she knows she’s going to see some action.”

While J-M also lost almost half of their starting fielders, they do return junior Lindsay Olson, Sarah’s sister, who hit .347 for the Rockets last season. Lindsay could see time at shortstop, center field and catcher.

Speaking of backstop duties, senior Charity McCann is also expected to see time behind the catcher’s mask.

At this early juncture in the schedule, the Rockets still have several starting positions up for grabs. However, Moore feels that there is enough talent on his team that being so deep at so many spots isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

“Everyone is really competing for starting positions,” Moore said. “If you get a bunch of kids who want to play, that’s pretty good. We’re going to be competitive.”

The Rockets will need all the help they can get against a section that Moore calls “one of the best in Class-A softball.”

Headlining this year’s section is WPIAL champion and state runner-up Chartiers-Houston, which brings back almost every player from last year’s team.

Despite losing so much talent and leadership in last year’s seniors and facing the daunting task of competing in a very deep section, Moore is still confident that this year’s team can be successful.

“We have every opportunity to win, but we need to get out to a good start,” Moore said. “I think we can compete with everyone in our section. We beat West Greene last year at their place and they lost to Chartiers-Houston by one run.”