Eight games into their season, Whitehall head softball coach Jeff Vivian has had some mixed reviews of his team. There are some new faces on the Zephyrs’ team that went 14-8 last season and lost to Nazareth, 6-5, in the District 11 Class 6A quarterfinals.

Yet, the Zephyrs were off to a 6-2 start to begin the week. They were coming off a 13-3 victory over Bethlehem Catholic and a 16-0 shutout over Allen after a 4-1 loss to undefeated Stroudsburg. Whitehall previously suffered its first loss, a 14-0 defeat to Pine Grove.

“I didn’t like the way we played the last three games,” said Vivian. “In the Pine Grove and Stroudsburg games, we were too tentative at the plate. We let pitchers put us in 0-2 holes without defending the zone.

“In the game against Bethlehem Catholic, we just did not hit the ball hard. We had soft swings and mental approaches in our at-bats.”

Vivian wants his team to get back to their earlier approaches.

“I think we fell off of how we were playing earlier in the year,” noted Vivian. “We had to make some adjustments at practice to how we mentally approach games. We need to refocus and get back to how we were playing and approaching at bats earlier in the year.”

Along with their offense, Vivian is looking for his team to tighten their defense.

“We also need to steady some of our defensive play,’ said Vivian. “Some of our techniques and communications started to fall off.”

Morgan Laub has pitched 36 innings over five starts with a 3-2 record and a 2.52 ERA with 37 strikeouts, and Jillian Pagan has pitched in three games over 12 innings with 24 strikeouts and a 0.00 ERA.

Molly McFetridge was .44 with five RBIs, Amya Espinal was at .438 with five RBIs, Pagan was at .375 with one homer and seven RBIs, and Laub was at .364 with three RBIs.

The Zephyrs will have a busy week ahead with East Pennsboro, Pocono Mountain East, and Allentown Central Catholic on their schedule. Vivian knows his team can still reach their potential and be in the hunt for the East Penn Conference as well as an extended district run.

“We have got a long way to go to play our best games,” stressed Vivian. “But it’s not how we start. It’s how we finish and we will get this corrected as we go.”