MORAN — It turns out one of Andie Carr’s high school plans was evaporating before she ever set foot in the halls of Marmaton Valley High School.
Sure enough, the school’s announcement over the winter that it would not be able to field a softball team this spring wasn’t entirely unexpected, but still a disappointment for the incoming freshman.
“I kind of figured we wouldn’t have a team because last year our numbers were so low,” she said. “And we had lost a couple of seniors.”
It was a bitter pill to swallow for Carr, who has played youth softball since she was a toddler, and was eager to hit the diamond as a freshman.
Once the news came, Carr examined her options.
She could simply forget about playing ball this spring, perhaps join the track team instead, and pick her original sport back up over the summer as part of a traveling softball team. 
Well, Carr had no interest in track. “I’m not a runner,” she explained. “I don’t like track.”
But she loathed being idle even more, so Carr chose another route altogether: she joined the Marmaton Valley baseball team.
Now, Carr has become a vital cog for the Wildcats, who have emerged from an 0-7 start and have won eight of their past 11 games.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” she said. “My favorite part has been the encouragement of my teammates.”
CARR suits up primarily at second base, and occasionally the outfield. So far, she’s had two hits, scored four times and driven in three RBIs — not too shabby for someone who had never played an organized baseball game until late March.
At first glance, there are only a few obvious differences between baseball and softball, starting with the significantly larger softball, and the smaller softball diamonds.
“It’s quite a transition,” Wildcat head coach Adam Borth explained. “The ball moves at a different rate of speed.”
Fundamentals like throwing and hitting also are quite a bit different, Carr noted.
“With a softball, you just grip it and throw,” she said. “With a baseball, you have to hold it more with your fingers to control it. If you use your whole hand, that ball can go anywhere.”
