It’s no secret Vernon Bland has turned the Prairie View Panthers softball team into a SWAC juggernaut.
But Bland, who is in his 13th season at the helm, knew he and the Panthers had made an impression when his wife, Michele, took notice.
“My wife, who doesn’t ever give me any props, said, `You’ve turned the program around,’” Bland said recently while letting loose a chuckle.
In all seriousness, Bland has had to take stock of how far the program has come as the Panthers get set to compete for a third-straight SWAC Championship and a third-consecutive NCAA Regional bid.
“We went from being the team everybody wanted to play in non-conference,” said Bland, whose team recently completed a SWAC West Division title run regular season with a 28-17 overall and near-perfect 23-1 SWAC record. “Them early season tournaments, Texas A&M and all of them were calling, ‘Hey coach, you want to come down?’ Now I’ve got to call them; ‘Hey, y’all got a spot for us?’”
The Panthers, who head out to compete in the SWAC Championships May 7-11 in Gulfport, Miss., have become known as a power-hitting program that will just as soon blast one over the wall as they will send a slapper past the infield to move runners. It’s what they do.
But they’ve done it at an amazing rate this season, which has propelled the team and positioned the Panthers for another postseason run.
Prairie View, led by Aerin Talley’s 12 home runs, led the SWAC in out-of-the-park shots with 37 during the regular season. The next closest SWAC team was Southern with 17 home runs.
While the power the Panthers have displayed may come as a surprise to outsiders, it hasn’t been at all for those on the inside.
“I wouldn’t say I’m surprised that we’re hitting the home runs and having the power that we have. We could kind of see it from last year,” said junior third baseman Jaylyn Davis, who is one of three Prairie View batters with six home runs on the season. A lot of our home run hitters from last year came back and we really didn’t lose a lot of people and the people we brought in, they’ve got the power, they’ve got the pop, they’ve got the speed.
“So I wouldn’t say it’s surprising to me. We saw what we had in the fall, so I knew we were going to be okay.”
When asked where is all of the power coming from this season, Bland’s quick response is that’s a good question. But then he starts talking about all the players who’ve hit home runs, including a pitcher, and you begin to understand power is a big part of his strategy.
Davis had led the Panthers in home runs the last two years, while senior catcher Biviana Figueroa has been a consistent hitter at the plate, and RBI leader Mia Nunez has also been a consistent hitter. But the wildcard this season may have been the smallish Talley, who has been a spark from the bottom of the lineup.
Bland swears she recently sent a shot that “easily went 240” for a home run at Alcorn State.
“Aerin has really come on,” said Bland, whose team hasn’t lost a SWAC game since April 5 and is riding a seven-game conference winning streak into the postseason. “So the people who have been hitting… we really haven’t had any surprises because the people we thought were going to hit home runs are hitting home runs. We just didn’t know at that rate. Even one of our pitchers got a home run. She made me look like a genius when she pinch-hit and got a home run.”
The Panthers occupied the top four SWAC home run leader spots with Talley’s 12, followed by six apiece for Nunez, Figueroa and Davis. Prairie View, which is second in the SWAC in batting with a .299 average, leads the league in slugging percentage (.460), RBI (254) hits (354) and most walked (178).
It’s all translated to success on the softball field for the Panthers.
“As a team, we are doing pretty good,” said Talley, who is batting .252 with 32 RBI but has struck out 31 times this season. “I feel like I’m not where I want to be at this point in the season, though.
“But our record is really good. We are doing real good in conference. I wish we had won a few more out-of-conference games to boost our ranking in regionals, but overall I feel like it’s going fairly well.”
