Tag Archive for: Cheyenne Tarango

HOT CORNER: WITH SPECIAL GUEST CHEYANNE TARANGO

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Welcome to another edition of the Hot Corner. The blog that is all softball all the time. The summer travel season is starting to wind down. The softball talent across the nation is doing the opposite of winding down. It’s growing exponentially. Every edition we will highlight a player from the amateur ranks local or national that you will need to remember. The goal of this blog is to always highlight the growth of the sport. We’ll also continue to have amazing guests from the National softball scene. Today our special guest is Cheyenne Tarango. Her interview will be at the bottom of the page.

Spotlight

This week’s spotlight is Hannah Capps. Hannah is a class of 2023 who plays for Coffee high school in Douglas, Georgia. In the state of Georgia, softball is played in the fall. So Hannah was not stripped of a freshman season like 2023’s here in Ohio. In her freshman season with the Trojans she hit .374 with 5 HR and 33 RBI. Hannah can play in multiple positions, but from what I’ve seen following her on Twitter for a while, catching is where she excels. Her pop time as a catcher is very good, especially considering she has plenty of time to get even better. Hannah plays travel for the EC Bullets Prairie ‘03. Hannah might just be one of the next premiere catchers that shines on the national level. With her hitting ability, and exceptional skills behind the plate, I don’t think it’s too early to see some Sahvanna Jaquish comparisons.

Friends of the Blog 

Our friends USSSA Pride-Scarlet closed out their summer last weekend in North Ridgeville. They made it all the way to the semifinals before rain ended the games, and their season. The Pride went 6-0 before the rain halted their weekend. The Pride hit 7 more HR’s over the weekend as a team. They were spread out between four players. When you look at their final offensive numbers for the season, they’re eye popping. Only two players didn’t hit above .400. Sydney Mercer finished the summer with a .544 average with 24 HR and 80 RBI. Those numbers aren’t typos. The team’s pitching numbers stayed strong this weekend too. Liana Morreale finished the year 11-3, with an ERA of 2.45. She also struck out 77.  Tori Long wasn’t far behind either. She went 12-4 with an ERA of 3.86. She struck out 58. These numbers on offense and defense are what led to a 44-9 record over the summer.  Congrats to the Pride on an amazing summer. We look forward to seeing what you all do next.

Special Guest Cheyanne Tarango

(Kevin Gregory)

Cheyanne Tarango attended Canyon High School in California before going on to continue her career at the University of Tennessee. She played on the USA Junior National Team. She also spent time with the Mexican National Team. Last summer she played in the NPF as a member of the Cleveland Comets, who are partnered with team Mexico. She also spent a season as a volunteer assistant coach at Louisville University. She was a pitcher who also hit, and played solid first base. Cheyanne is known for her devastatingly slow changeup. A pitcher who can take she hit 19 HR and 89 RBI in her career at Tennessee.

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HOT CORNER: HAPPY WORLD SOFTBALL DAY

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Yes softball fans yesterday was the day the world gets to celebrate this wonderful sport! World softball day was all over social media as travel college, and professional teams shared memories of the game we love. What are your favorite softball memories? I’ll get to some of mine later, but first let’s check in with Ohio USSSA Pride-Scarlet.

An exciting Friday as after a 7-1 blowout of Ohio Lightning, Sommer Bourne hit a walk off home run to beat Ohio Slamforce-Hudson. That was the first of 4 home runs this powerful offense would hit on Friday. Maris Barbato hit her 5th of the summer, and Sydney Mercer hit a pair, including a grand slam. The Pride went 1-1 on Saturday. And after winning their first 3 games today, they fell to Valley Extreme 5-4.

I was not able to attend this weekend’s games but thanks to our friends at GameChanger I was able to follow the games closely. It also gives me access to the numbers this Pride team is putting up so far and…wow! As a team in 22 games played the Pride have hit 28 home runs. Sydney Mercer leads that category with 8, Maris Barbato has 7. Mercer is hitting an eye popping .537 with 28 RBI. Barbato is hitting .508. This offense is  so deep you can’t pitch around anyone. I think it’s really smart that they usually have Barbato as a lead off hitter. Coach Szolek doesn’t fall for misconception that your HR leaders need to be 4, and 5 in the lineup. Having Maris lead off a game immediately puts pressure on an opposing pitcher, and they can’t start with a lead off wall and pitch around her. She’s everything you want out of a leadoff hitter, and she adds significant power to that resume. Emily Holland had an amazing Sunday hitting 3 HR’s including a grand slam. She brought her average up to .333 and boosted her RBI total to 17.

Liana Morreale and Tori Long get the majority of the starts in the circle for the Pride, and they’re both solid. Liana is a commit to Old Dominion and has great movement on her pitches. Long does a great job countering her with a different approach. Morreale has 28 K’s on the summer, and Long has 22. With their offense has potent as it is, they really don’t have to be perfect in the circle. It takes a lot of pressure off those two and you can tell in the loose nature they bring to their pitching. We’ll continue to follow the Pride and other local travel teams as the summer goes on. Follow their team twitter @OhioScarlet.

Now back to celebration of World Softball day. I owe so much to the sport of softball. I did play special Olympics softball for 4 years with the Mahoning County Public Warriors. It was a great outlet for my competitive mindset to get out and compete at a sport. But really the thing that softball has brought to me the most is amazing friendships. I’m not exaggerating when I say that a large percentage of the friends I keep in my circle I have met from the game of softball. My love for the game started gradually as I was in high school. South Range’s softball team at the time was very successful. They won 28 ITCL games in a row during my junior and senior year, and made trips to the regional tournament both years getting to the final once. Not too far down the road at the same time in Poland, Erin Gabriel was making a national name for herself. My family knew Erin, her dad and my mom worked together so we always kept tabs on her career. When she announced that she was going to play for Tennessee, that’s when I really started to watch college softball. And man, does the game at that level get you hooked fast. Erin started at Tennessee in 2013, and she was on one of the best teams in the country. I fell in love with that team. I think since social media, especially twitter was fairly new softball fans including myself had so much opportunity for connections with the players on the highest stage. I could go on twitter and have conversations with some of Erin’s teammates who grew to be friends. Players like Lauren Gibson, Raven Chavanne, Ivy Renfroe, and Cheyenne Tarango made it so easy to get emotionally attached to the success of that team. Ivy got drafted by the Akron Racers, who I had no idea even existed before then. Once I went to Firestone Stadium to see her play, it was over. There was no going back to life without softball. And watching professional softball through the years has given me so many amazing friends. So to everyone involved in this beautiful sport happy belated world softball day.

Some of my softball memories to share with you.

I have some very cool special guests coming up soon on the Hot Corner. Softball fans won’t want to miss it. Keep following along as the Hot Corner merges the local softball scene and the elite level of the sport.