UPDATED: Tennis and Soccer Teams Kick Off Season With Victories, Softball Team Struggles

Girls Softball

April 16— The Clawson girls softball team struggled to open the season last week. The Trojans lost all three of their games and the girls lost two of them by 15 or more runs.

On Tuesday, they lost at Lincoln 17-2, then on Wednesday they lost to Madison Heights 13-10 and they finished the week off with a 20-0 loss to Groves.

But the growing pains weren’t totally unexpected. Clawson’s roster doesn’t have a single senior on it and they are starting six underclassman. Coach Ray Mcmann said he’s also starting two different freshman pitchers.

“We had a senior graduate that pitched all but two games,” Mcmann said.

The biggest thing for the Trojans will be making progress as the year goes on. Mcmann already saw that in the first three games. His pitching staff walked 15 batters in the season opener and just six against Groves.

“We’re young, we’re real young,” Mcmann said. “The pitching is getting better, but we went from three errors to five to 13 errors yesterday. So we just got to get better in the field now that the pitchers are getting over the plate a little better.”

Another positive in the first three games was Alli Coscine. She had two home runs against Madison Heights and was two for two against Lincoln.

In addition to inexperience, the Clawson girls will also have to deal with some tougher competition this season. It jumped up from the Macomb Silver division to the Gold division, so the girls schedule will be a little more difficult.

The Trojans have another three games next week. Clawson plays East Detroit at home (4 p.m.) on Tuesday, at Port Huron on Wednesday (4:30 p.m.) and a doubleheader at Royal Oak on Friday (4 p.m. and 6 p.m.).

Girls Tennis

The Clawson girls varsity tennis team is putting the Macomb Silver division on notice with its play to open the season. The Trojans won their third consecutive meet, and second within the division, on Tuesday 7-1 over Lamphere. On the season, Clawson has only lost two out of the 24 matches its played. 

Seniors Stephanie Tennis and Kaitlynn Sikora lost their first doubles match of the season to juniors Kelsey Myers and Meghan Duberg in three sets - 1-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7, 5) – but the rest of Clawson’s double pairings were perfect on the road.

Laura Clissold rebounded from her first loss of the season with a win over Genel Hasi (6-2, 6-3). In other singles action, Sarah Allen, Olivia Stenzel and Jenna Ziegler all remained undefeated on the season with wins.

Girls Soccer

April 16— Through four games the Clawson girls soccer team still hasn’t allowed a goal this season, unfortunately on Friday night against Warrant Mott the Trojans weren’t able to score themselves. The game between the division rivals at Clawson ended in a 0-0 draw.

Both teams enter the second full week of the season with identical records of 1-0-1 in Macomb Gold division. Clawson has played two out of conference games and are 3-0-1 on the season.

The Trojans have another division game on Monday at St. Clair (6 p.m.) then play at Madison Heights on Wednesday (4:30 p.m.).

April 15— The Clawson girls soccer team is off to a similar start. The Trojans opened the season before spring break with a mercy rule 8-0 win over Warren Fitzgerald on the road.

Spring break didn’t do anything to slow them down, this week they won two back-to-back home games. On Monday, Clawson beat Lake Shore 2-0 and then on Wednesday they beat Marine City 4-0. The girls will try to hold their fourth opponent without a goal on Friday against Warren Mott (7 p.m.).

Varsity Baseball

Not all the results were positive this week. The Clawson boys varsity baseball team struggled in its game against Southfield this week. The Trojans lost in five innings 10-0 (mercy rule).

The baseball team opened the season during spring break with a double header against Summit Academy and lost both games (8-3, 17-4).  Clawson will try to get back on track on Saturday morning (9 a.m.) with a game against Frankenmuth.