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St. Cloud State University
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Softball team gears up
By Ben Dunsmoor
Published:
Thursday, March 27, 2003
Media Credit: Adam Masloski
The SCSU softball team has begun practicing and is getting ready for what will hopefully be another winning season.
In any sport, it's hard to keep a team together from season to season, or even preserve a piece of team chemistry from the previous year.
In college sports, it's even tougher to accomplish this feat when you throw the graduation of seniors into the mix. The SCSU softball team, however, doesn't really have to worry about those factors. They will be returning their entire starting lineup from a 2002 season that saw them tie a school record for most wins in a season (going 44-13 overall) and shattering various other records. Needless to say, SCSU will have a leg up on their competition going into the season.
"Our chemistry on and off the field is awesome and that helps us a ton," junior first baseman Brooke Gentzler said. "We all work together very well having a year under our belt."
"It's a huge benefit," senior pitcher Megan Grimes said of returning all the starters. "We have some great leaders and we've been playing together for years."
Returning all of your players is a plus, but it definitely helps when those players can perform and these girls can do the job on the diamond. Virtually all of the starters on this season's squad received postseason honors nationally, regionally and in the NCC last year. This is a group that also set new team records last season for most runs (326), most home runs (36), most RBI's (269), best overall batting average (.325) and most total bases with 736, not to mention breaking a plethora of individual records.
"They're definitely talented," head coach Paula U'Ren said about her players. "We have the power hitting and the speed and we have experience with players that have been playing at their positions for three or four years."
SCSU placed third last year in one of the toughest conferences in all of Division II. SCSU feels that if they can do well in the NCC again this season, they will have a decent shot at the national championship.
"I think the NCC is one of the best conferences in the nation," sophomore Abby Velta said. "I feel that whoever comes out of our conference will probably go to nationals."
St. Cloud can say that the NCC is one of the best conferences in the nation from experience after accumulating a 16-6 early season record during their travels to Texas, Florida, Georgia and Missouri.
"We've been all over the country this year and definitely our conference is one of the toughest around," U'Ren said. "If we can just make it out of our region, we've got a great shot at winning the tournament."
The Huskies began the season ranked 13th in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association, but have dropped to 21st after some early season losses to nationally ranked teams, including No. 1 St. Mary's.
The Husky fastpitchers aren't going to rush into things though, they want to use the talent that's at their disposal, take every game seriously, turn every loss into a learning experience and stop at nothing short of a national championship.
"We've got some great players, and we're just looking to go all the way this year," Grimes said.
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