Coaches Corner for June 10th: Gabe Dunn, Madrid Softball

With us on coach's corner, KWB Jiga, a chance to talk to him. Madrid Softball today has gave Dunn joining us. He tigers with a real solid victory last night, pushing themselves to nine and two now on the season. And coach and I were just having a smile off air just because a lot of good things going on right now with Madrid Softball gave. And it kind of feels like this is a situation that we knew had a chance to come just because there were so many young girls that were coming up and they were so excited to be just a part of softball, just be in softball. Just, I mean, they lived it and they watched it and they enjoy it. And Gabe, they're kind of living there out their dreams. This is summer so far for you. You know, it's crazy what can happen when you got a bunch of kids who are all having fun at the same time and pulling the rope in the same direction, you know, enjoying each other's company. But then yeah, you talk about you still got to play softball and play well. And right now that's exactly what we're doing. What, Gabe? Oh boy, where do you put your finger on it? Did you notice some things when you guys were getting into practice in May? Give me some things that maybe you saw that maybe you didn't see even just last year. I think you got to start with just the level of focus that we've had, you know, starting even through the off season, starting in the winter into our, you know, practice come around in May. And it's always tough with other sports going on and try to focus in on softball when we get here, but they really did. And they've been motivated and ready to go. And, you know, we talk all the time about the little things and just focusing on, you know, discipline and being smart and being good about the little things. And that's what we've been able to do. So then you take that and you roll it in the games. And, you know, we got hot a little bit. And right now, now they've understood what it takes to win. And right now, every day, we've been coming to the park ready to go and things have been turning out well. Well, what else has been fun to watch too, Gabe? And just, I mean, getting the scores from me at night, then I check the next day and get a chance to read and check out the box scores. You're getting a ton of help and assistance all over the lineup, Gabe. I mean, it doesn't feel like, okay, listen, if you get through one, two and three against the Tigers, you're set, you know, you're fine. Just get through those first couple of batters and you're fine. I mean, you've got a lineup right now that you jokingly were telling me about the bottom of the lineup. And here's a couple of things we might want to change here or we might want to do this here. And then I feel really good. I'm thinking, Gabe, we're talking about the last two in the order that we're just talking about right now, not worrying about other things. I mean, that's a huge advantage, Coach. It is. I mean, we know that hitting is contagious. And, you know, we got kids at the top of the order right now with Maisie Serrat and Audrey Brown, who are really setting the table, setting the tone. And it gives everyone else confidence that they're going to go up there too and do the exact same thing, you know, do some damage and get on the base pads and cause some havoc on there and exactly. I mean, right now we don't even see the bottom of our order as the bottom. It's just a continuation. And yeah, it's been a lot of fun because we've had different kids step up every single day too. And, you know, you're going to have those down days, but then turn back around and to be able to bounce back and say, no, the next time up, I've got it. Well, I'll tell you what, Coach. You said something about somebody who I definitely wanted to talk about and that is Audrey Brown and just what a fantastic start to the season that she's had. You told me some things off the air that I thought were really great and obviously Audrey joining the program. And that can always, you know, not maybe mess with chemistry, but it can change things around. And to me, it sounds like from you, Coach, this has not really been much of anything. This is just, hey, we're going to plug in a really good player, a really nice player into the lineup and let's see what happens. Absolutely. Yeah, she's, you know, she's embraced the program and the kids have embraced her as well. And, you know, she lives softball. She's here for it. She wakes up with it and goes to bed with it. And it's been great. You know, she's been able to teach these kids, especially a lot of these younger eighth graders and ninth graders, what it takes to be great and just coming in every day and having that level of focus. And so, you know, she's been another great leader for us too. Not taking on too much, but just understanding that she's going to help show everybody else what it takes to be great. And they've been really following that lead. Tell you something else. It's been pretty nice for you so far this summer, coach. You're getting after a little bit more on the base path. Tell me about 35 out of 37 and stolen bases. Yeah, it's a little bit more than what we expected this year. We don't tend to say we've got a lot of team speed, but right now we've got some kids who know what they're doing. And base learning has been a focus really since the beginning in May, just understanding that we can, you know, steal some runs there on the base path. And so we've been focusing as much as we can with the little practice time we get on that and just understanding where we can manufacture some more runs there. And yeah, across the lineup, everyone knows that they might be the ones given the green light. So we're already always ready to do that. Yeah, you are definitely. Well, we talked about hitting, we've talked about pitching, we've talked about stealing. Boy, there's one other piece that we haven't talked about that has been really nice this summer so far. Gabe, has there been a little bit more emphasis on the defense because I'm seeing that error count and I'm seeing that fielding percentage from where it was last year at this time. Wow, it is very impressive so far. Yeah, I think that's probably out of all things. The thing we coaches are most pleased with. We talk about the team who makes the least amount of mistakes, typically wins the games and we've been doing that quite often. And really it just comes down to doing exactly what we do every single day in practice. So then as soon as that game comes around, we get that opportunity and you make a play. You know, softball is a very simple game. As soon as you get that ball hit to you, you make the play and we've been able to do that. It does help, we've got, you know, every one of these kids are back from before and they feel comfortable now. They know each other and they know that they can make a play and their teammates are gonna do it too. And that just gives us a lot of confidence. They know Macy's gonna throw it in there, get a lot of strikes and that ball is gonna be hit. They're making plays and again, softball's fun when you're playing well, then you play better. Fun to go to the ballpark, isn't it, Coach? Sure it is. Hey, Gabe, as always, thank you so much for some time. Best of luck, I know, with South Harden coming up tonight and we'll talk to you again here real soon. All right, thanks, I'm good. Absolutely, that's Gabe Dunnigan joining us. Madryn Softball here on Coach's Corner.