Oran, ace Jones back for more wins in 2014 softball season

~ Eagles return top pitcher from district championship team

Aubrianna Jones showed during her junior season just how far she's come as a high school pitcher.

Jones nearly pitched Oran into the Class 1 semifinals with a 15-strikeout performance in a quarterfinal contest that was undermined by defensive problems.

The performance was one of four losses she encountered last season.

The Oran ace recorded 11 wins -- all but two of the Eagles' wins in their 13-5 season -- and posted an enviable 0.83 ERA in the process.

Oran softball coach Jim Eftink talks about his team Thursday, Aug. 14, 2014 in Oran, Missouri. (Fred Lynch)

Her wins included a three-hitter against Naylor in the district championship game, which netted the Eagles their first district title since 2008.

The success came after she committed to the sport and discovered a pitch that baffled hitters.

"My sophomore year was when it really started to click that I could be this really good pitcher," Jones said. "Before that I was just playing to get in shape for track, but my coach really showed me how to want to win, how to win and how to throw good pitches."

Jones said she had always been a pitcher, but it mostly felt like a chore until Oran coach Jim Eftink took over in 2012.

"He was a real disciplinarian, but in a good way," Jones said. "I had never really had that in sports, but he really pushed me and brought out the love of the game in me."

Eftink said Jones is the best player he has ever coached and attributes that to her unique style of pitching.

"The ball moves more than any other pitcher I've ever coached and it's really hard for teams to center her ball," Eftink said. "All left-handed pitchers have a little movement on their ball, but she can make it jump in, jump out and jump down. That's what makes her so special -- her ball moves and throws hitters off like nothing I've ever seen before."

Jones said Eftink made her into the pitcher she is today, just by a making a simple adjustment in the way she grips the ball during her sophomore season.

"My change-up hasn't really ever been too good because I throw it too hard," Jones said. "We were working on how to slow my change-up down one day in practice and coach showed me how to hold it a different way. I threw it once and it curved like crazy. I stopped and looked around because I didn't even know I could do that. That's been my go-to pitch ever since."

Eftink said she relies on the pitch so much that sometimes she doesn't even have to throw her other two pitches during games.

"It is really that good," Eftink said. "You don't see someone at her age doing anything like what she does. It's helped us win games and gotten her to heights she wouldn't have thought possible when she started playing this game."

Eftink has also been impressed with her tenacity and desire to win every game.

"She's a little bulldog out there; she won't back down at all -- one of the fiercest competitors when she's out there on the mound that I have ever coached," Eftink said. "She's got an attitude, and not an attitude with me, but the attitude that she's going to get people out and she demands it of herself."

Most catchers would struggle to deal with the movement of Jones' curveball, but the Eagles' catcher and Jones' longtime friend Allie Cummins, a senior, said catching for Jones is effortless.

"We've played together so long that we just know each other so well," Cummins said. "Catching her is just a routine that we go through every day. Sometimes I don't want to catch anybody else, because with her it's just so easy."

Eftink said they make it look too simple.

"The game plan they have and how in sync with one another they are is unbelievable," Eftink said. "We try to develop a game plan before every game that involves who not to pitch to among other things. They execute it every game, and that's something our team probably takes for granted. We're very fortunate that they work together so well."

Cummins said she has seen a lot of improvement in Jones' change-up, but it was her curveball that propelled the Eagles to their best season in school history.

Oran won their second Class 1 District 1 title with an 8-1 victory over Naylor last year and advanced all the way to the quarterfinals, where Jones had a no-hitter through five innings.

"In that game I don't even think I threw one fastball," Jones said. "I got so dependent on that curveball because it was so consistent and it really just made me relax."

Jones admits she may have relaxed too much after watching the no-hitter and the Eagles' season slip away.

"It was playing out perfect for us," Jones said. "They didn't have a single player reach base through the fourth. We were looking good and we were hitting good."

She ran into difficulties after that point on a day where the Eagles' defense committed eight errors. She battled to get out of jams in a game that was tied 4-4 after seven innings. The Eagles snatched a lead in the top of the ninth and 10th innings, and were a play away from a win in the bottom of each inning, but two-out errors ultimately resulted in a 7-6 win for Walnut Grove and an end to Oran's season.

Jones pitched all nine innings and struck out 15 batters in the loss.

"Thinking about that game still keeps me up at night," Jones said about the Eagles' quarterfinal loss last season. "It wasn't the way we had played all season. It's really disappointing to lose it all like that in one game, but we're going to come back even stronger this year."

The Eagles' quarterfinal loss was tough to take, but losing seven seniors, including four-year starters Addie Kielhofner, Chrissy Sauceda and Taylor Nenninger, may hurt even worse.

"This will be the first time that Oran has had a new team like this in four years," Eftink said. "The program does look different than it has in the past, but we'll get our girls to buy in to our style of play and be ready to go come game-time."

Junior Tatum May is the only other returning starter for Oran. The Eagles have added five freshmen to the roster.

"Getting the freshmen to step up and learn to play as a team is the biggest challenge we face right now," Eftink said. "They're young and they're going to make mistakes, and I'm not one to take mistakes lightly, but I will cut them some slack because they are new to competitive high school softball."

Eftink said mental preparedness will be a focus for everyone on the team.

"It's not just the freshmen -- everybody has to take a step back and be prepared to work a little bit extra on the learning process," Eftink said.

Eftink will look to Jones to lead the Eagles young team.

"She's a different kind of leader, she leads with her actions and what she does on the field," Eftink said. "She's not one to tell the other girls what to do, but she will be there to encourage and help her teammates improve on their game."

Eftink also has confidence in his team.

"I think we're going to surprise some people," Eftink said. "Yeah we're young and inexperienced, but this team is starting to mesh, and as soon as it does we will be hard to beat."

Oran opens its season on the road against East Prairie on Thursday.