The Cardinals started off their Ft. Myers/Cape Coral, Florida spring break trip with two tough losses to Wittenburg University and Beloit College. The women rebounded by going 6-3 to end the trip – including a four game win streak that was kicked off with a big 5-0 win over Eastern Nazarene College—and brought home an impressive 6-5 record.
“I think we had a great trip to Florida. We came back with 6-5, the best record start ever for Wes softball team,” said Head Coach Jen Shea. “We have a young team and the underclassmen did good fitting into the program making their mark.”
The Cardinals are returning this season without powerhouses Rose Ferrari ’03, Lindsay Wasserman ’03, and Melissa Courtemanche ’03, all of whom graduated from the softball program. But the team is returning with hitting stars co-captain Sue Frost ’05, who led the team in RBI’s last season and Diana Garcia ’06 who led in hits and batting average. Co-captain Kelly Harris hopes to top her fourteen run, twenty-one hit, and ten RBI performance from last season. The team also added new talent in Molly Graebe ’07 Stacie Szmonko ’07, Allison Zoromski ’07, Vicky Russo ’07, and Lindsey Greenberg ’07. Graebe has been leading the team from the mound thus far this season, she posted a 0.59 ERA in Florida, allowing just twenty-three hits and striking out 80 batters. Graebe broke the single-game team-record for striking out batters with fourteen against St. Joseph’s College of Maine and is en route to breaking the strikeout record for the season of 82. “The team is playing very well defensively and is looking better than in the past three years…we think coming back here will make a big difference,” Shea said.
The Cardinals are looking to improve upon their 1-7 NESCAC record from last season. They know that they need to work hard if they want to be at the top of their conference this season. But in order to play hard, the team must have fun doing it.
“It is very competitive in NESCAC this season. Past years we’ve only one won game in NESCAC and making conference tourney is a real goal, as well as being over .500 team goal. If we start hitting better than we did in Florida, we could definitely make tourney,” Shea said.
“People always say, no matter what, just have fun. I completely agree, but it’s a lot more fun to win. So my goal is do have fun, win some games, and brush my shoulder off,” Graebe said.
The Cardinals kicked off their northern swing with Thursday’s afternoon game against Coast Guard. The first big test of the season will come against NESCAC foe Hamilton at home Saturday at 1 p.m. The Continentals and the Cardinals split a 1-1 series last season and the Cardinals are looking to begin their season in the conference on good note.
The biggest tests for us are the next four weekend are conference games. Each week’s competition gets tougher, especially William,“ Shea said. ”These are big games on our schedule we must win for making tournament.“
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