PRAIRIE VIEW — It’s not even mid-April, and Prairie View senior infielder D’yani McKinley already has the Panthers’ softball team postseason plans for May on lock.
“We are going to go all the way,” said McKinley, referencing winning the SWAC Championship and advancing to the NCAA Softball Regionals. “So, look forward to seeing us play May 9 in the SWAC [tournament] Championship and being in Regionals on May 15, definitely.
“I’m dreaming it with my eyes open.”
There is a subtle difference between being cocky and being confident, and these Panthers believe in themselves. And for good reasons.
As the regular season winds down to the final couple of series, no team has been as dominant in the SWAC West and arguably the entire conference this season.
The Panthers enter this weekend’s final home series against Alcorn State with a 22-14 overall and 14-1 SWAC record and with the division all but wrapped up.
“I think we can go all the way,” said Prairie View coach Vernon Bland, who is in his 15th season at the helm of the program. “I really think we can win the tournament and win a game in the Regionals, if we play up to our potential.”
The Panthers have a high ceiling, which is nothing new for a program that has been among the SWAC’s strongest since 2018.
The faces may change from year to year, but the Panthers remain in the SWAC Championship conversation and have the chance to advance to Regionals.
It’s part of Bland and his assistant coach Joseph Lane’s carefully crafted system.
“We don’t change a lot,” said Bland, whose teams won SWAC championships in 2018, 2022, and 2023, and in 2019 crafted the school’s first 30-win season. “Our practice plans are basically the same, our itinerary when we are on the road is basically the same.
“When girls come in, we don’t do a lot of changing. We just try to stay consistent and get the type of players who want to be at Prairie View.”
Players like freshman Morgan Smith and transfer pitchers Yasmyn Stewart and Kayla Adams chose the Panthers because of the reputation. Adams observed Prairie View from the opposing dugout as a member of Arkansas-Pine Bluff for a couple of years before deciding last offseason to make the jump.
She saw something in the Panthers that she wanted to be a part of.
“I saw professionalism,” Adams said. “Like they wanted to be here, were ready to be here, and they were going to take the win. This is what we do, everybody knows who we are.”
And the view hasn’t changed at all from the inside, where the Panthers have put together an impressive season. They have been dominant in SWAC play but have also notched non-conference wins against the University of Houston, University of Louisiana, Austin Peay State, Houston Christian, and played respectably in an 8-0 loss to defending national champion University of Texas.
The hope is that the wins against bigger programs will send the message that the Panthers can compete and win in the upcoming postseason.
“It helps a lot because I keep telling them when we play our game, we see what can happen,” said Bland, whose team’s only SWAC loss so far this season came in a 5-3 decision to rival Texas Southern on March 7. “We can beat other teams. We beat Austin Peay, and then they beat McNeese.
“All we’ve got to do is compete. If we compete, we can win big games.”
After a disappointing last couple of seasons that included division titles followed by third-round exits in the SWAC Tournament, the Panthers seemed poised to get back on top.
Lane, who is known by the players as Coach Rollo, says they tweaked some things offensively this season to manufacture more runs. It seems to work: Prairie View ranks No. 2 in the SWAC in offense (.344 average), while Smith ranks 5th in the league in batting (.444 average and 18 RBI), and Kearstin “KiKi” Tinsley ranks 11th with a .400 batting average.
“The key to it, honestly, is just having our main people who know the culture to pass that to the new people coming in, and then they accept that culture and learn our standards. We set new standards every year, so making sure everybody is on the same page and then get it going from there. If something goes wrong, we are mature adults and talk about it and get going.”
– Kearstin Tinsley, Infielder
The Panthers aren’t a power-hitting team, but are consistent with getting runners on base and then moving them around with hitting and stealing bases. Players like senior outfielder Mia Nunez and junior infielder Jade Uresti have been a big part of manufacturing offense.
It’s all led to better offensive production with Prairie View averaging 10 runs per game.
“The goal is to understand which pitch we should be hitting and making sure when we swing, we get a high level of bat-to-ball ratios,” Lane said. “So we are not just swinging just to be swinging. They are more intentional when they do commit to attacking the ball.
“We want to make sure whatever ball they hit helps us execute whatever we are trying to do. So if we are doing a hit and run or we are trying to bunt or whatever, we are trying to make sure that that ball gives us the best opportunity to be able to execute that.”
The offensive production has taken some of the pressure off Adams and Stewart, who have also been backed by a stellar defense that makes few mistakes. Adams is 13-6 on the season and ranks third in the league with a 2.75 ERA and 65 strikeouts while being on the mound for several run-rule victories. Stewart, who transferred from Grambling State, is 7-2 with a 4.72 ERA and 29 strikeouts to her credit.
“Both of them are doing pretty good in that capacity,” Lane said. “They are not afraid of getting in that circle … none of them are, even the ones not pitching as much. They are not afraid of getting in the circle and throwing because they have a pretty solid defense behind them.
“They don’t have to be perfect, and they can relax a little bit. Plus, we are scoring runs. Because we are scoring runs, it takes a little bit of pressure off of them having to be perfect. They don’t have to strike everybody out because we can put up some runs for them.”
It’s all led to a strong sense of confidence. Smith, who leads the SWAC in fielding, says she believes the Panthers have the SWAC championship on lockdown.
“We’ve got that in the bag and even further, to be honest,” Smith said.
