[06/28/02]For four years, Marilyn Landers has looked over at the Warren Central dugout and seen coach Lucy Young. Saturday at Raymond High School, she’ll see the sight one last time.

Landers will play for the South in the MHSAA slow-pitch softball all-star game, while Young will serve as one of the coaches.

“It’ll be fun,” Young said. “It’ll be great for me to see her through her last game and see her get more recognition for what she’s done on the high school level.”

What Landers did was, simply, dominate. Her future lies in fast-pitch she hit .341, scored 36 runs and stole 17 bases this spring for the Lady Vikes, and signed to play at Hinds Community College but she was even better in the fall.

The two-time Vicksburg Post slow-pitch player of the year hit .427, had seven triples, scored 35 runs and drove in 32 more. She led the team with 44 hits and homered twice.

“Marilyn is probably one of the purest softball players that has ever played in this area,” Young said last winter.

“We’ll look back to her as one of the best players that has come through our program. She ranks right up there.”

That includes off the field, as well. Landers has won several statewide postseason awards, including the inaugural PopStars award, given by the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame to the top player in the state in each high school sport. Landers won for slow-pitch, and Young said her reaction was the same as if she’d won the lottery.

“She’s so unassuming. With every one of those awards, it was like you’re kidding, right?’ She called me on the way home after she won (the PopStars award) and she couldn’t believe it,” Young said. “She’s so happy and so appreciative of everything. It doesn’t seem like she takes her talent for granted.”

Landers was good enough to be selected to play in both the fast-pitch and slow-pitch all-star games. The rules state that a player must choose one or the other, however, so Landers opted for slow-pitch. In part to play for Young one last time, but mainly because she just enjoys it more than fast-pitch.

“I like slow-pitch better. It gets more people involved,” said Landers, who plays shortstop in slow-pitch and in the outfield for fast-pitch. “It’s a totally different game. Fast-pitch is more like baseball.”

She won’t have much time to make the adjustment back to slow-pitch. To prepare for her career at Hinds, Landers has been playing in a fast-pitch league this summer.

She’ll have a couple of practices before Saturday’s best-of-three series, and she said having Young as her coach will make the transition smoother.

“That helps a lot, because she’s coached me the last four years,” Landers said. “I know her techniques and I don’t have to relearn a whole bunch of stuff.”