The Augustana softball team (5-7) started their 2017 season in Florida over spring break. With a total of twelve games played there, the team, including senior captains Ashley Klauss and Brittany Kellett, recognized what they need to improve on for the rest of their season.
“We have been working on specific things in practices since we’ve been back so we expect to execute them,” Klauss said.
Coach Kristina Kistler said that their defense and hitting has been good, but their pitching needs to be worked on. Even though the team got off to a rough start in Florida, Kistler noticed that the team had great chemistry.
“We bounced back pretty well,” Kistler said. “We’re really looking to build for the future right now and the rest of the season.”
All the games played in Florida were not CCIW games, so the team is looking forward to being able to start some conference games. They want to try to make it into the conference tournament this year.
“We’re always excited for conference play to start,” Kellett said. “We don’t like to focus on a specific team or game, but instead focus on winning one game at a time.”
From the focus on individual games, the team decided not to make any team goals other than to focus on improving overall and winning each game.
“We try to focus on one game at a time and not let future games distract us,” Klauss said. “We strive to be better each game and don’t want a goal to define what we want out of this season.”
This year’s softball team features a lot of young players, Kistler has noticed the great leadership from the upperclassmen that is helping the team with their confidence.
The team’s first home games of the season will be the weekend of March 25 and 26 for the Augustana Invitational. The team will be playing four games over the two days.
“Our team has been working extremely hard and are ready to win our first home games,” Kellett said.