STATE PREVIEW: Beatrice leaning on depth, strong pitching staff at state tournament

BEATRICE, NEB. - Beatrice Softball Head Coach Gary Lytle describes his 2024 team as “young, but competitive."

The Lady O roster consists of just four seniors, but it’s been good enough for 26 wins and a three-seed at the state tournament as Beatrice heads to Hastings for the second year in a row.

“It’s been from sophomore all the way to senior where you’re seeing leadership and everything else,” Lytle said. “The competitive part is from the top of the group to the bottom, they’re all very competitive in practice and in games. Not many of them like to lose very much.”

A perfect example of that is the Lady Orange pitching staff. It consists of two sophomores in Karrigan Henrichs and Jada Berke and junior Layla Boyko, and the staff has collected a 3.60 team ERA.

Boyko and Henrichs say the strength through the staff has been crucial to the teams success.

“It’s been amazing for me as another pitcher, it’s one where, the load is big on the pitcher, but being able to share the load and be the leaders on the team has been really enjoyable.”

“We’re different pitchers, but we obviously compliment each other really well,” Book said. “Last year it was just me and Jada [Berke], but having a third one has really helped us out and it’s really a staff this year.”

Boyko and Henrichs have combined for 19 wins. The Lady Orange starting catcher has been junior Sadie Hereth. She says the two are different pitchers, but enjoyable to catch.

“It’s been good, I like catching both,” Hereth said. “They’re both different which is good and it’s just very fun catching them.”

Beatrice begins the state tournament at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning, when they take on six-seed Gretna East.