By James Howey
The softball team begins a season with only four returning players from last year. Even with the lack of experience, the bar is still set high.
“What we expect out of our program every year and definitely something we are expecting this year is to get to the national tournament,” Head coach Audree Brattin said. “We are a very young but very talented team, very capable of doing it.”
Coach Brattin looks for the ladies to have a team capable of winning with different ways throughout the season.
“We don’t really have many standout players,” coach Brattin said. “We do have a group that’s going to play together on the field as a team and to me that’s more important than all the talent in the world.”
One of the squad’s returning players is pitcher Zoe Price who led the team in ERA (earned run average) with 2.98 and had a record of 20-7.
“I expect us to do really well and beat some of the teams we had trouble with last year,” Price said. “Our defense is strong, our offense is strong and we all gel really well on the field as a team.”
Consistency is key for the girls to maintain success throughout the season.
“I get the kids and they’re working hard for two or three hours at practice and some days they’re just feeling lazy and not willing to put in as hard of work as they did the day before,” Coach Brattin said. “Finding the consistency of getting our top play every single day that we step on to the field is the key.”
The Cavaliers went 3-2 at last weekend’s Cowtown Classic in Fort Worth, Texas and will face Coffeyville Community College at home March 4. According to coach Brattin, the ladies can expect stiff competition from the teams they will face in the tough Kansas Jayhawk Community College conference.
“They’ll learn pretty quickly that we see the best out of every team that we face because we’re one of the best teams in the nation,” she said. “Everybody that we face wants to beat us.”
Contact James Howey, sports editor, at jhowey@jccc.edu.