Despite a big turning over of the roster, head Saluki softball coach Jen Sewell thinks the team will be just as dominant as ever.
“I think we got what we needed and we filled the holes quite quickly,” Sewell said. “Per usual here, the next class is always ready to step up, so I think it’s as good as it’s ever been.”
Advertisement
Coming off of one of the best seasons in program history, the Salukis lost eight seniors, including Maddie Eberle, Sidney Jones, Rylie Hamilton and Elizabeth Warwick, the latter three of which appeared on All-Missouri Valley Conference teams. The Dawgs also lost MVC Freshman of the Year Maddia Groff and her twin sister and catcher, Rylinn.
However, Sewell is confident in the roster that she and her staff have in place, which was bolstered by a big transfer class.
Transfer senior Mckenzie Newcomb and sophomore Kiana McDowell will be counted upon to stabilize the rotation, and a number of freshmen will be counted on alongside them.
Advertisement*
“If I were just a fan, I would pay attention a lot to the transfer class. Mikaela Coburn from John A. Logan (College) is the real deal,” Sewell said. I think the SIUE (Maleah Blomenkamp), the Austin Peay (Charley Pursley) transfers, Emily Williams from Morehead State… are going to help us.”
Sewell also thinks that the key to the Salukis’ success will be their defense behind their “great pitching.”
“It would be how well we can play defensively… we lost that framework that made us feel good defensively, a lot of seniors on the field. So I’m looking forward to some juniors and probably sophomores filling in defensively,” Sewell said.
Emma Austin, a senior outfielder coming off of two consecutive second-team All-MVC seasons, is especially excited about how that defense is taking shape.
“That’s where I think the majority of the new people are… and of course me, being in the outfield, I have loved taking on kind of like that motherly role and watching them kind of find what they’re good at,” Austin said.
“I’m excited about our arms… I’ve been noticing that more and more, everyone’s getting stronger. Our speed, our arms in the outfield. I think it’s really going to set us apart,” Austin said.
Austin didn’t forget to mention how the infield will look this year though.
“I’m really excited about the infield, because even though there’s a lot of veterans out there, there’s a lot of new faces coming into that, and I’m excited to watch them morph into kind of the crazy infield that we always have,” Austin said.
One returning player that fans may have forgotten about is also set to once again be a mainstay behind the plate and reassume a much larger role.
“I think the backbone of this team is Anna Carder. She’s caught a lot, and she did us sort of a favor last year and (played designated hitter) a little more and caught a little less with the twins being around,” Sewell said. “I expect her to go right back to some of the numbers that she put up, especially her freshman year.
Beyond Carder, a lot of versatility is expected from the team this season, especially in the field.
“It’s a very unique-looking team because of how different it could look,” Jackie Lis said. “There’s so many different parts and pieces of this team that no matter what, whoever you put in the lineup, it’s going to be a good-looking team.”
This includes many of the newcomers to the team, several of whom will be immediate contributors.
“There’s a lot of freshmen that can play multiple spots, a lot of transfers that have proven that they’re good players at other schools. I just think there’s a lot of moving parts,” Lis said.
Austin echoed this thought while highlighting how diverse of a group of talents is present on the roster.
“There’s not one person on the team that does what another one does or does something better than another one does without bringing another talent to the table,” Austin said.
Having made two consecutive NCAA tournament runs, one thing that may change is an increase in pressure, both inside and outside of the program.
“Not that we don’t talk about it, but we recognize that it happened, it’s in the past, it was amazing and it was great. But we also recognize that this is a new time and things change from season to season,” Austin said.
Sewell, who has coached at SIU for 17 years, including four as head coach, included team culture being a big part of managing expectations.
“Anytime you change over 50% of your roster, you’re relying on now eight captains to sort of drip your culture downhill,” Sewell said. “The culture will sort of take care of the expectations.”
This culture, which will stem from the leadership of a group of eight captains including Austin, Lis, Carder, Erin Lee, Addi Baker, Alexis Rudd, Chloe Scroggins and Hailey Wilkerson, will be crucial to the continued success of Saluki Softball.
“A lot of the upperclassmen that returned, we have had to step it up a little bit and kind of use the example of last year’s team on how to keep the culture and try to get everyone on the same page,” Lis said. “Definitely having eight captains to kind of set the tone and show everybody like, ‘Hey, this is how we do it. This is how we’ve always done it. This is how we’re going to continue to do it,’ also is a big step.”
The leadership and culture of the team, as well as their preparedness, will be tested early in the year. In their first month of play, the Dawgs will face off against Auburn, North Carolina, Mississippi State, Georgia Tech, Kansas, Creighton, Purdue and Wisconsin, among others.
Austin is particularly excited about getting to open the season with this gauntlet of teams.
“This season and getting to play all these big teams is just really fun… you’re just playing whoever and it doesn’t matter what rank they are or anything,” Austin said. “That’s when you see those upsets, and so I think, ‘Why couldn’t we get one of those?’”
For her part, Sewell is happy with where the team currently sits.
“I like where we’re at, and I like some of the progress we’ve made just in January… If we continue the work we did in the fall, we’ll be great in February and March,” Sewell said. “I don’t make a lot of predictions, but I just know what we’ve been through and I trust we’ve put in the work.”
Sports reporter Ryan Grieser can be reached at [email protected]. To stay up to date on all your southern Illinois news, be sure to follow The Daily Egyptian on Facebook and on X @dailyegyptian.
Advertisement