The Lehighton softball team focused a lot on hitting in the offseason. Head coach Dave Yob worked through as many as 50 drills with the Tribe, and so far this season, all that focus is paying off.

On Thursday, The Indians (2-0) looked like they were in mid-season form at the plate, coming through with 15 hits, helping them come away with a 14-7 victory over Panther Valley.

Hitting has been the key to Lehighton’s early success.

“Hitting is something we focus on a lot. You know you’re stuck inside for a lot of the offseason, but this group loves to hit and they love to work,” said Yob. “This might sound like overkill, but these kids have gone through or worked through close to 50 hitting drills. I bring drills out of the wood work and we try them.

“But you can see it’s working, you can see the bats are level and that’s what we like to do, and so far we’ve been hitting the ball really well.”

Lehighton hit the ball extremely well from the get-go in this one, jumping out to a 6-0 lead after two innings. Becky Serfass, Cierra Kunkle and Sam Gruber all collected hits during that span.

The third inning proved to be the biggest of the day for the Tribe as they collected four hits and four runs in the inning, helping them to a 10-2 advantage after the Panthers had scored two runs in the top of the third.

Serfass, Kunkle and Gruber all came through with hits once again with Alexis Scott helping out with a single and an RBI. Gruber and Kunkle also collected RBIs in the inning.

“You can see that we’re definitely a more experienced team. We’re still kind of young, but you can see we’re playing with confidence,” said Yob. “There is still some things we need to shore up, but this is just a great group of girls. We’re hitting the ball well, we just need to keep working to get better defensively and keep playing hard.”

Lehighton’s firepower from the plate kept them on top in this one, but the Panthers never went away. After going scoreless in the first two innings, Panther Valley scored seven runs between the third and sixth innings.

Claire Kokinda was the offensive catalyst for PV during that stretch, collecting two hits and three RBIs. Lexi Cooper and Katrina Horvath also added RBIs.

During the course of the game, there were many instances where the Panthers were in jeopardy of falling victim to the 10-run rule, but they battled back each time it was their turn to hit. That’s something that in recent years migh not have been the case.

“I think you can see that we’re improving, I’m proud of the way the girls battled today,” said PV head coach Candace Olson. “I thought we really hung in there, we need to get better defensively, we need to keep working, but our bats looked good today. That’s something we can build on, we just need to keep working to get better.”

LEADERS ... For Lehighton, Gruber led the way with four hits and three RBIs. Kunkle was also impressive, coming through with three hits and two RBIs. For PV, Kokinda had three hits and three RBIs, including two doubles.

HITTING HEAVEN ... There were plenty of hits in this one as the teams combined for 24.

Panther Vy. 002 122 0 - 7 9 3

Lehighton 244 220 X - 14 15 2

Pascoe, Beshock (3) and Drumbore; Kunkle, Engle (6) and Serfass. W - Kunkle, L - Pascoe.