Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year. MVC Player of the Year. A 41-win season.

All of the above were accomplished by the SIUC softball team last season, but those achievements failed to produce the team’s chief goal an invitation to the NCAA Tournament. A 3-0 loss to Drake University in the MVC tournament last May ended Saluki hopes of an at-large bid to the NCAAs.

SIUC finished the 1997 season 41-16 and second in the Valley. Coach Kay Brechtelsbauer capped off her 30th season at SIUC with her first MVC Coach of the Year award. Pitching sensation Jamie Schuttek appeared in 40 games, posting a 28-2 record with a 0.87 ERA and became the first Saluki to earn most valuable player honors since 1993.

Advertisement

Unfortunately, the individual honors were spoiled by missing the postseason.

We did have a good season and maybe did better than we should have, Brechtelsbauer said. Coach of the Year honors was not as meaningful when we didn’t win the conference.

Now, SIUC must deal with the loss of Schuttek to graduation. Also gone are All-Conference third baseman Becky Lis and outfielder April Long, leaving no seniors on the team. Schuttek, Lis and Long also accounted for 51 percent of the team’s offense.

Brechtelsbauer has turned to the junior trio of catcher Brooke Hattermann, first baseman Theresa Shields and outfielder Jen Feldmeier, naming them team captains.

Freshmen outfielder Marta Viefhaus, catcher Julie Meier and pitcher Erin Stremsterfer will be others looked upon to fill in holes as well.

The Salukis begin the 1998 season Friday at the Mardi Gras Classic in Monroe, La., against University of Tennessee. The seven-team tournament includes the University of Mississippi, Tulsa University, Centenary College and Northeast Louisiana University.

I think we have people that can step up and be as good as them, said Shields, who has fully recovered from reconstructive knee surgery two years ago. Playing together as long as we will, I think as a team we’ll be better than we have been.

Advertisement*

If the fall preseason was any indication of things to come, the Salukis should be competitive this year. SIUC ended 11-6 with victories over Oklahoma State University, the University of Nebraska and Colorado State University.

Southwest Missouri State University is favored to win the conference title while the Salukis were picked fourth in the preseason coaches poll. Illinois State University and Drake University are also expected to contend.

But Brechtelsbauer feels confident SIUC’s pitching can carry her team a long way. Stremsterfer and sophomores Carisa Winters and Tracy Remspecher combined for a 0.37 ERA in the fall.

Brechtelsbauer said this year the team will not have to rely on just one pitcher to carry the load.

When you have a pitcher who’s had a year as phenomenal as Jamie [Schuttek], there is a big hole, she said. We’re going to have what we might call more truly a staff, rather than one person being a workhorse.

Carisa Winters had a impressive freshman year, and hopefully she can be a little more consistent and pick up some of that slack. Erin Stremsterfer came in as a freshman this fall and showed a great deal of poise for a first time out at this level.

Winters worked during the off-season on her drop curve and slider to complement her fastball and changeup.

Now that I’m going to be throwing a lot of drop pitches, people will be hitting a lot more ground balls, Winters said. My defense will be able to help me out more.

The measure of the Saluki success will depend greatly on the growth of the younger players. The team has six freshmen and five sophomores who could see action.

We’re young, and we haven’t proven what level we can play at consistently, Brechtelsbauer said. We had an excellent fall season. We defeated some Big 12 schools, and some of those teams are ranked in the preseason ahead of us.

We have a sophomore class that got a lot of playing time last year. And we have a freshman class that we are looking to for an immediate impact.

The Salukis travel to Monroe, La., Friday to compete in the Mardi Gras Classic.