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SETTING THE TONE: Seniors lead Jays' offense

When Jamestown High School softball coach Mike Soulis fills out his lineup card he starts with a bang. The seven-year coach starts with the senior trio of Hannah Schiele at leadoff, daughter Sydney Soulis in the two-hole and Olivia Nihill batting...

Jamestown High School seniors, from left, Sydney Soulis, Olivia Nihill, Hannah Schiele and Kelsey Goter will lead the Blue Jay softball team to the West Region Tournament this weekend. John M. Steiner / The Sun
Jamestown High School seniors, from left, Sydney Soulis, Olivia Nihill, Hannah Schiele and Kelsey Goter will lead the Blue Jay softball team to the West Region Tournament this weekend. John M. Steiner / The Sun

When Jamestown High School softball coach Mike Soulis fills out his lineup card he starts with a bang.

The seven-year coach starts with the senior trio of Hannah Schiele at leadoff, daughter Sydney Soulis in the two-hole and Olivia Nihill batting third.

The three have combined to hit .388 (87-for-224) on the year to help lead the Blue Jays (14-10) to the No. 5 seed in this week's West Region tournament in Mandan. Jamestown will face No. 4 Bismarck High (13-9) on Thursday at Fort Lincoln Field beginning at 1 p.m.

"With us three starting off we try to start getting the rally going and determine how the game's going to be," Schiele said.

Schiele had big shoes to fill after replacing all-state center fielder Mariah Wick this spring. The speedster heated up once the calendar flipped to May by recording 20 hits this month.

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"She's been my role model and mentor for a very long time," Schiele said. "So without her I had to take that role as the leader by starting our games off the right way. That's been a lot of pressure but I've been trying to handle it."

Sydney Soulis also made a transition after going from the five-hole to second in the lineup. The catcher is third on the Blue Jays with a .459 batting average and second in RBIs with 34.

"It's really about getting on base for me and getting those runs scored," Soulis said. "I just try to not put so much pressure on myself."

Soulis doesn't just help lead offensively, behind home plate she manages the team's three young pitchers.

"She's got a good calming about her," coach Soulis said. "A lot of times if the pitcher has a bad hitter or two she goes out to talk to her and helps go through their fundamentals. She helps them get out of ruts they may get in."

Nihill rounds out the three seniors in the lineup with her small-ball approach of notching 23 singles out of her 30 hits.

She's also been the shortstop for Jamestown throughout the campaign. After a rough start, where she committed seven errors during the first seven games, she's only had four since.

"I strive to be consistent at shortstop because when I miss a ball I get really mad," Nihill said. "So I just want to make sure I can be there for the team."

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Senior Kelsey Goter has played a role as a backup outfielder for Jamestown this season, appearing in 14 games.

"I'm always ready," Goter said. "You never know when you'll be put in."

All four of the seniors came in a couple years into the start of the Jamestown softball program after Mike Soulis and Darin Peterson began the team in 2012.

The Blue Jays were off to a rocky start with records of 2-18-1 and 2-10. But most of the players back then were older players that hadn't played the game before.

"It was more of a hybrid slowpitch/fastpitch pitch," Mike Soulis said. "The girls didn't understand the game of softball. But with help from our summer program, and kids playing more has helped us advance more in the game."

After the struggle out of the gate, Jamestown's posted a 67-61 record over the past four years.

For Thursday's matchup, Bismarck and Jamestown split its season series. The Demons won a pair of 7-2 contests in April, while the Blue Jays won 9-8, 7-4 in May.

"We've really competed with all of the teams and so that should boost our confidence a whole lot," Sydney Soulis said.

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