“We’re so excited that we performed well last year, but this year our goal is really to win the National Championship,” said Amy Wray, Emory softball’s senior captain and outfielder/second baseman.
While an ambitious goal for the softball team, the Eagles’ training for this season indicates they are certainly up for the challenge.
With a handful of scrimmages throughout the fall, the Eagles have been gearing up for an eventful season.
A new season comes with a new team, but the Eagles will start the year with quite the seasoned squad. The team only lost three seniors to graduation last spring.
Senior captain and outfielder Taylor Forte spoke highly of her fellow co-captain, senior pitcher Brittany File, who was First-Team All-American last year.
“It will be great to have [File] return,” Forte said. “[And] to have a good mix of new younger players who can help out and get in the lineup and a lot of returning players as well.”
Wray also noted her excitement for the upcoming season, particularly because of the addition of six talented freshmen.
Head Coach Penny Siqueiros spoke with excitement of the new additions to the team.
“Our entire rookie class is amazing,” she said. “I was going through their bios online to proofread, and I was reading through their information and just said to myself, ‘man, they’re really good.’”
One of those freshmen to watch out for, according to Wray, is infielder and outfielder Jessy McLean, who is likely to play third base, one position open after last year.
Forte also made mention of junior first and third basemen Ashley Powers, who will be “a big power hitter” for the Eagles.
As for pitching, File will receive some help on the mound from sophomore Madeline Maday and freshman Sami Feller.
“Every year is a special year. Take away one player, add one player. Every time you make one roster adjustment, it’s a brand new team,”Siqueiros, heading into her 19th year of coaching, said,
The number of returning players will unquestionably be advantageous for the Eagles, especially given the team’s appearance in the NCAA World Series just last year. This was the first national championship appearance for the Eagles since 2007.
While making it to the championship was exciting for the Eagles, Wray says it makes the stakes even higher this year.
“Last year our goal was just making the championship, but after we made it we didn’t perform as well as we wanted to,” the captain said. “So this year instead of just making the tournament and fading out, we want to be ramping up and playing our best ball.”
Besides the team goal of winning the national championship, and “player-coach” goals that connect her individually to each player, Siqueiros added, “For a program as a whole, we want to identify what each of our individual strengths are and understand how each of those individual strengths play out in the strategies of each game.”
The head coach compared her goal to a game of chess: “We want to make sure to move the pieces of the chess game in the right direction for the right moment,” she said. “Knowing who we are lets us make the right moves.”
Forte spoke of the importance of a home crowd: “We would love to get as much support as we can get for our games.”
The Eagles will commence the spring season this coming Saturday, Feb. 11 at 10 a.m. with an away game against Rhodes College (Tenn.).
