Q&A with Susquehannock softball star Lily Yoakum

Lily Yoakum is looking forward to her senior season next year. The catcher had a successful individual year, posting a .500 batting average with 11 RBIs in just 21 games.

However, the Susquehannock star wasn’t content with the 8-8-4 record the Warriors posted last season.

GametimePA caught up with Lily recently following the season:

Do you have any superstitions on game day? Superstitions on game day…not necessarily, but I like to always go in with a positive attitude no matter who we play.

Were you satisfied with your individual performance this year? Individually, I feel that I did all that I could. Of course there are areas where I could improve, but I feel that I supplied as much as I could for my team.

How does your team look next year? We’re all excited about next year. We didn’t do as well as we had hoped last year, so we’re coming out with a flame in our hearts to hopefully carry our school a lot farther.

What opponent gave you the most trouble on the field? I’m going to have to give in to Central. It was quite a game; we didn’t really battle back as well as we wanted to. They’re one good team.

What was your favorite moment of the season? My favorite moment has to be the Delone game. It ended up being like a home run derby. They had several home runs on us, but we ended up winning anyway (14-13). It was an all-around hitting fest, and it was really exciting to come back and get the win.

What are you most looking forward to in your next season? Next year I’m looking forward to being a senior and helping to take the team as far as possible. Hopefully to get into districts and then hopefully states.

What is the highlight of your sporting career thus far? My highlight was freshman year, we were playing Northern, and we went into extra innings. I was the game-winning run in that game.

If your sport wasn’t offered, what sport would you play? Definitely soccer. I’ve played soccer since I was about five years old. It’s always been a big part of my life, and my father’s life.

Besides softball and soccer, what do you like to do? I’m always in the gym with one of my close friends Ali Kurr, who was also a teammate of mine. We like to work out a lot and just better ourselves.

Who is your role model? Ohh, that’s a lot. My top role model would be Jessica Mendoza, just because she’s now an Olympic softball player, and I actually had the privilege to play with her and learn from her in a softball clinic.

Wow, that’s awesome. What was it like to play and learn from her? It was an unbelievable experience. She came down to York College and helped my softball organization that I played for in the summer.  She just told us about her life and gave us all these tips and things to do to help us take our softball career a lot farther.

In a 'Freaky Friday' type move, you switch bodies with someone else. Who would you want to be for a day? I would like to switch bodies with my coach. He’s an amazing guy, and I’d also like to see from a different point of view how I play and just what it looks like. Just my mannerisms and also how I could get better.

What’s your pregame routine like? My teammates and I, we get in the team room and we like to turn up the music as loud as we can. We just dance around a little bit, get all of our nerves and jitters out, and just have a good time.

What’s your pregame music? Anything really loud and fast paced. We listen to a lot of like trap music, which is a bunch of newer techno I guess (laughs).

What embarrasses you most about your parents? (Laughs) All parents are embarrassing. The support they give me is amazing and I couldn’t ask for better parents. I love the way they cheer for me, so I wouldn’t really say it’s embarrassing. I’m just lucky to have them.

What is the one thing you do that drives your mom or dad crazy? When I get really nervous or stressed out I bit my nails. Or I bit around them. I always hear it from my parent’s to “stop biting your nails!”        

What’s your dream date? I would love to go out by a lake and go fishing and lie out in a truck bed and watch the stars with music playing.

If you could go anywhere on vacation, where would you go? Ohh, that’s a tough one. If it was in the summer I’d like to go somewhere tropical, something like Bora Bora. But I also like to ski. So if I were doing it in the winter I would want to go somewhere with really beautiful mountains.