Softball mixes experience with youth
Just over a month into the 2015 fall season, two things are apparent for Central Michigan softball; they have experience and they have youth.
The question this fall for 36-year Head Coach Margo Jonker is how the two extremes will find an equilibrium come spring.
Eleven incoming freshmen will play their first collegiate softball this season for CMU, but Jonker said the influx of newcomers is creating the right kind of competition on her team.
“A lot of people will be pushing last year’s starters for a starting spot,” Jonker said. “The goal is they either get a starting spot or make the person in front of them a lot better by the competition.”
With eight starters from last year’s 34-win team returning, including the entire pitching staff and battery, Jonker has the welcomed dilemma of having to mix young talent in with returning experience.
“We are in the position where a number of (underclassmen) are really talented, but I don’t want to pick one or two out right now,” she said. “We got a long time before the season really starts in February. So, these (fall) games give some indication, but how hard they work all January, December, the rest of this month, October and November is the key.”
Canton native and graduate student CarolAnn Sexauer, who was sidelined last season with a broken hand, said her health is back to where she wants it and is ready to compete and lead the Chippewas in 2016.
“We want to compete," she said. "We are pushing each other and individually we are all getting better and we're all in for the team. That’s our goal for this year—just compete."
Returning junior pitcher Rachael Knapp will look to improve on her sophomore campaign, during which she led the team in almost every pitching category statistically, including 17 wins, 219 strikeouts and a 2.0 earned runs average in 26 starts.
“We all just push each other,” Knapp said. “If they aren’t starting, the people behind (the starters) are pushing them to be better. Everyone is just pushing each other to be better this year.”
