Panther Thexton earns first-team All-WAC honor

Great Bend Panther Paige Thexton delivers a pitch.

thexton1 — Great Bend Panther Paige Thexton delivers a pitch.

Panthers earn softball honors

Great Bend Panther sophomore Paige Thexton earned first-team All-Western Athletic Conference softball honors. Thexton teamed with second-team All-WAC outfielder DeShawna Bryant to spark the Panthers’ offense. Thexton shared pitching duties with Jordan Turner.

First baseman Analiz Rivas earned second-team All-Western Athletic honors. The Panthers (3-18, 2-10) defeated Liberal 8-7, 8-7 and Hays Thomas More Prep 14-7 for their victories.

WAC FIRST TEAM

GARDEN CITY—Brie Manwarren, 11; Jesykah Foster, 12; Yesenia Castro, 12; Piper Harris, 9

HAYS—Riley Dreher, 9; Dezarae Schmidt, 10; Aubree Thomas, 10

DODGE CITY—Marisela Landa, 12; Taryn Coon, 12

GREAT BEND—P-SS Paige Thexton, 10

COACH OF YEAR—Katrina Mai, Garden City

PLAYER OF YEAR—Brie Manwarren, Garden City

WAC SECOND TEAM

GARDEN CITY—Angel Serrano, 11; Kamryn Foster, 11

DODGE CITY—Camryn Lenz, 12; Brittany Lomas, 12

HAYS—Morgan Berry, 11

GREAT BEND—DeShawna Bryant, 9; Analiz Rivas, 11

LIBERAL—Jenna Ormiston, 11; Taylor Harding, 9; Amaya Blake, 12

WAC SOFTBALL

Garden City 12-0 17-5

Hays High 8-4 13-8

Dodge City 5-7 10-12

Liberal 3-9 10-11

Great Bend 2-12 3-18

BY BRETT MARSHALL

GARDEN CITY — When Garden City sophomore Brie Manwarren won the 2021 Western Athletic Conference softball Player of the Year award, she said it had all come down to years of hard work, having great coaches and teammates.

Nonetheless, she also maintained that she could improve in areas of both pitching and hitting.

Fast forward to the 2022 spring season and it was apparent that Manwarren took her own advice – work harder, find ways to improve, and good results will occur.

Manwarren completed her junior season with the Lady Buffaloes and accomplished many of those goals of improvement she had mentioned the year before.

Included in that was a unanimous vote by the WAC’s coaches to award Manwarren the POY honor for her 2022 season.

Her batting average improved from .458 to .493, her extra bases increased from 18 to 23, including four home runs. Her RBIs/at-bat ratio was nearly the same, and her slugging percentage ballooned from .771 to .986. Her two-year career batting average is .474 with 74 hits in 156 at-bats. She has scored 74 runs driven in 76 runs.

“Honestly, I felt I could have done better since my average was quite a bit higher midway through the season,” Manwarren said. “There were times when I got too excited to hit. I was losing power by throwing my hands out, so I know that I can still do better. I set high expectations. I’m happy, but not satisfied.”

On the pitching mound, Manwarren was just as impressive in her improvement. Manwarren (15-4) helped her team go 12-0 in the WAC and 17-5 overall, just missing a return to the state tournament in a regional final loss to Wichita Northwest. A year ago she posted a 16-3 mark in aiding her team’s state appearance.

Her earned-run-average was lowered significantly from 3.63 to 2.19, her strikeouts increased from 185 to 212 and her walks were less than twice what she issued a year ago (47 to 22). She also hit fewer batters (4-10) and pitched 4.1 more innings. Her strikeout to walk ratio was a sparkling 9.65:1.00.

In assessing her improved pitching, Manwarren focused on adding pitches to her repertoire.

“My rise ball took big strides from my sophomore year,” she said. “I worked a lot with Trina (Mai, GCHS Head Coach) and my summer coach quite a bit. This summer, we will work on my drop ball. I could give hitters two different looks but I know to get to the next level, I need to add more variety that I can go to in any situation.”

Manwarren says she sees the difference in where her pitching level is when the Lady Buffs faced some top teams from central and eastern Kansas.

“The power-hitting teams you just have to keep them on their toes,” she said. “If they’re looking for a certain pitch and you can keep them guessing, you’re going to have more success.”

Manwarren said her rise ball was likely used 90 to 95 percent of the time as her “go to pitch.”

“It’s a hard pitch to lay off,” she said. “It looks like it will be in the strike zone but then goes up into their eyes and it’s been a tough pitch to hit when I get it located right. It’s hard to lay off.”

The Lady Buff standout said she pretty much went away from trying to throw a screwball this year (a pitch that breaks in the opposite direction of a slider or curveball).

“Last year on most of the hits I gave up, I didn’t get the best break on the ball,” she said. “I’ll focus on the drop ball and try to keep the change-up cleaner.”

Manwarren said her two years of varsity ball with the Lady Buffs has been memorable in that she has the best coaches and teammates. She, like every other high schooler who plays spring sports, missed the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which canceled the entire spring schedule.

“Everyone has bought into the work that we need to do,” she said. “We’re a really close-knit family group and we have a lot of fun. We got much better as the season progressed and I like those big games where it is intense and exciting. Those are the games where you know you’ve earned a win.”

For Manwarren, the work ethic is what brought her to this point of her high school career. She believes more hard work will take her to another level in 2023, her senior year.

WAC FIRST TEAM