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Women's softball team starts season
By Ross Weener
Staff Writer
FILE PHOTO
Rachelle Heyboer proves that "throwing like a girl" isn't always a bad thing.
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After a very successful spring break campaign in Orlando, Fla., the Calvin women’s softball team is back and has its eyes set on winning the MIAA title. This goal, which has not been accomplished since 1997, will mean knocking off five-time defending champion Alma College.
During the spring break trip, the Knights amassed a 6-2 record and the team began to get a look at its talent. The Knights were able to play eight games in good weather but the last two games were rained out. Calvin dropped the first two games it played by a total of three runs. The most disappointing of the two came against William Patterson, as the Knights gave up a 5-1 lead in the top of the seventh inning to go on to lose 7-5.
According to veteran head coach Amber Warners, each game could have been won.
“We were about one inning away from being 8-0, but that is okay,” she said. “I’m glad that we went through these situations early in the season, we would rather have them happen early instead of later in the league season. The team was able to learn how to react in those situations and it also helped light a fire underneath us that wouldn’t have been lit as hot if we hadn’t won.”
With the fire lit, the bats came to life and so did the defense. Everything all at once began to click and the Knights began to roll, winning six straight games. During that span Calvin outscored its opponents 42-6 and gained three shutouts. An extra-innings affair with Fairleigh Dickinson University was the closest game, a 3-2 victory for the maroon and gold.
“We played really well down in Florida,” said Warners. “Our offense and our defense were both clicking. We have some refining to do to both, but overall we played tough with everyone.”
With the MIAA fast approaching, Calvin will play a number of non-conference games to prepare them for the league portion of the season. The Knights will see Saginaw Valley, Aquinas, Rose-Hulman, Franklin and Thomas More before beginning the MIAA season on April 2 with a doubleheader with Hope (away).
By playing an NCAA Division II school like Saginaw Valley and an NAIA school like Aquinas, both of which can give athletic scholarships, Calvin is better preparing itself for a rigid conference season.
“By playing such stiff competition in our non-conference portion of the season, we are only helping ourselves for later on,” Warners said. “The league is what matters if we are going on to post-season play. When we face tougher pitchers and defenses earlier it helps condition us for the MIAA.”
A year ago, Calvin posted its first winning season since 1998 as the Knights went 20-17 overall and 7-7 in the MIAA, which was good for a fourth place league finish. The finish was a dramatic turnaround from Calvin’s 2001 campaign which saw the Knights go 14-22 overall and tie for sixth in the MIAA standings with a 4-10 record.
Calvin also reached the MIAA Tournament for the first time since 1999 and upset eventual tournament champion Alma in its first tournament game before bowing out with losses to Hope and Alma.
According to Warners, the goal is to win the MIAA and advance to the NCAA post-season.
“Every year it is our goal to win the MIAA, but this year especially we have a great chance of doing it,” she said. “We have a very deep pitching staff and we also have the best infield that I have had in my seven years of coaching at Calvin. It also seems that this team has a very team-oriented mindset.”
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