The season opener this weekend can’t come soon enough for the Western Nebraska Community College softball team considering they have been enduring six in the morning, 2- 3-hour practices. WNCC, who finished 43-21 a year ago and won the Region IX tournament, are scheduled to open the season Saturday taking on Garden City Community College in Garden City, Kan., on Saturday before facing Frank Phillips on Sunday.
“They just want to play,” WNCC coach Maria Winn-Ratliff said. “They work extremely hard and they have good attitudes. It will be exciting to see what we can do when we can get the whole team together and actually participate against someone else instead of ourselves.”
The indoor practices, weather it is fielding ground balls in Cougar Palace or taking hitting practice in their indoor batting facility, is starting to take a toll on the team. They are ready for some real competition.
“The coaches and the girls are anxious to get out and play,” WNCC coach Maria Winn-Ratliff said. “They want the weather to get much nicer because they hate getting up at six in the morning. When the weather is nicer, we can be outside and be on our own field in the afternoon.
When they do hit the field this weekend against Garden City, they will be facing a Garden City squad that is 4-0 so far this early season and has been hitting the ball with authority. Garden City took three games from Lamar Community College, defeating the Region IX team 6-4, 7-6 and 11-9.
The Cougars, however, bring plenty of fire power, depth and athleticism to the field this season. One of the bigger names returning for the Cougars is Jordan Schoepflin, who earned Region IX’s Most Valuable Player honors last season. Schoepflin batted .445 last season with 45 RBIs and 39 runs scored.
Also returning is Jacqui Cappuccilli, who will be counted on to stabilize the middle infield position as well as Ashton Hughes. Hughes, according to Winn-Ratliff, will be the wildcard of the team.
“She pitched limitedly for us last spring because we had to use her behind the plate, where now we have some flexibility with Jocelyn Stubbs, Bourdon and Bree Bitton behind the plate, which will allow her to be in the circle,” Winn-Ratliff said. “She has progressed well and had a great fall. Returning those three [Schoepflin, Cappuccilli and Hughes] is really big for us.”
WNCC also will be counting on several other sophomores to be leaders on the team. Megan Bourdon is another one of those players that can a multitude of positions from the outfield, second base, first base and catcher.
Also, Allie Alverson and Amanda Saldivar in the outfield will be key for the team as well.Winn-Ratliff is also excited by the freshmen talent that is on the team.
“I am really excited for our newcomers,” she said. “I believe we have some young ladies that will step in and do some things for us as well. For us we think it is a pretty balanced attack. I think you will see old faces and you will see new faces.”
The first-year players include three pitchers, which along with Hughes, should provide a solid and deep pitching rotation. The freshmen hurlers include Aria Agle of Mapleton, Utah, Amanda Jones of Las Vegas, Nev., and Sarah Ward-Hadden of Hayward, Calif.
“Right know I would have to say Ashton is throwing the most consistent day in and day out,” Winn-Ratliff said. “She has experience and If we had to choose a true number one I would have to say it was her. But, really, I don’t have a one, two, three or four pitcher.
“Two will be a battle with Amanda Jones and Sarah Ward-Hadden because we will look for Aria Agle to play a lot of outfield for us. She will get some time in the circle but she is good on the grass. All four of them are completely different in the dynamics of the way they pitch, their style and what their best pitches are. We are excited about that to have some flexibility and lots of different looks in the circle.”
The other players all bring a different dynamic to the team. They include Jocelyn Stubbs and Chelsi Townsend of Roosevelt, Utah; Darlene Truong of San Diego, Calif.; Sarah Hawryluk of Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada; Mariah Faifer of Albuquerque, N.M., and Bree Bitton of Clinton, Utah.
While pitching and the infield seem to be the bread and butter of the Cougar defense, Winn-Ratliff sees this team with the potential to put up some big offensive numbers.
“We swing it pretty well. This isn’t the best bunting team I have ever had, since our philosophy is to play the short game and put runners in scoring position early and try to score early and often,” she said. “But, with Jacqui, Jordan and Ashton returning with tremendous offensive numbers from a year ago, and then you throw in Jocelyn and Megan Bourdon into the mix, it looks good on paper. We have a line up put together on paper that looks pretty good.
“But until they face other competition and face live pitching day in and out, it is really hard to tell how good we will be offensively. Previously, we had teams where we had to outhit teams, but I don’t think it will be this type of team this year. I think our pitchers will be able to keep us in the ball game and we can win 3-1 or 3-2. Will we score more runs than three a game? I hope so. We feel like our one through six batters has the potential of putting the ball out of the park every single at bat.”
After this weekend’s season openers, the Cougars will participate in the Midland College tourney Feb. 18-19. The Cougars are not scheduled to play at home until March 17 when they face Black Hills State College. For now, Winn-Ratliff said the potential is there for another regional championship team.
“The potential is endless and limitless to where they [the players] can take us,” she said. “We don’t ever talk about last year or can we repeat because it is never the same people. We want to talk about the challenges that each team faces and how we are going to overcome that adversity to get to the goal that we have every year and that is to be the region IX champions and attend the NJCAA national tournament.”
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