Aggie softball will rely on young pitching staff in 2019
The softball coaches at Utah State are choosing to go with a pitch-by-committee approach for this upcoming season.
A new season starts in just under three weeks for the Aggie softball team, and they don’t have a true rotation set up as of now. Although softball is different from baseball which typically uses a five-man-rotation, most softball programs opt to go with two players in their rotation. Because of that, the team will elect to go with multiple starters instead of locking down a consistent second starter, at least for the start of the season, says head coach Steve Johnson.
“We’ll be doing a lot of rotation, we call it pitching by committee,” Johnson said. “So if one of them gets hot and is doing well, obviously we’re going to let them keep rolling. But, if they get into trouble, we’ll have the other two ready to go.”
This Utah State pitching staff is young, after the loss of two of their most used pitchers in the offseason. Jordyn McCracken has graduated and sophomore Kellie White has transferred to Long Beach State; meaning it’s now up the two sophomores, one junior and two freshmen the Aggies have on their roster to carry this team.
Last season, the coaches primarily relied on two pitchers; White and Freshman Delaney Hull. The two accounted for 43-of-52 starts among Aggie pitchers, with McCracken also starting in eight. Currently, there is only one player on the roster who has pitched in more than one game for the Aggies.
Hull was the ace of the staff last year, winning nine games and finishing sixth in the conference in ERA, and she’s back for her sophomore season.
“Honestly, I think all three of us are just going to be rotating in and out the entire season,” Hull said. “I think we all bring something to the table, which is really cool and exciting because I feel, at any moment, any one of us can just go in,” Hull said. “Definitely both of the freshman are neck and neck, working hard, in and out each day. So they’re definitely battling for that spot… But overall, I think we are really strong as a staff right now.”
As of right now, there doesn’t seem to be a favorite among the coaches between freshman pitchers Kapri Toone and Chloe Nightingale. Toone, last year’s Ms. Softball in the state of Utah, twice took her team to a state title at Bear River High School. Regardless of her high school success, she’s motivated to help her team win in any way she can.
“I just want to play a bigger part for my team,” Toone said. “We have three good pitchers here, so I’m not always going to be throwing like I did in high school, so I just want to be there for them too.”
Nightingale had some success of her own in high school; winning a state title with Adolfo Camarillo in California and being named pitcher of the year as a freshmen. She expects this Aggie team to be just as good as any she has played on.
“Honestly, I think this team is going to do really well,” Nightingale said. “I’ve seen them a lot over the past five years, coming here and just being here as a recruit, and I just think this year is going to be a really big year for us.”
This coaching staff has ensured that both players are grinding hard to be able to be ready for the start of the season, should their team need them. Utah State has been scrimmaging since the fall, and has been practicing six days a week since the start of the new year. Assistant coach Laura Heberling shared what she’s seen from these players since she started working with them.
“You know, they’re transferring over from the high school travel team level to the next level, at the Division I level, and what I’ve seen in them is just them trying to take in so much knowledge and fundamentals,” Heberling said. “It’s like a light goes off, like wow this helps me, or that helps me, so that’s been the biggest key.”
This may be a young team, but one thing is certain, they have plenty of confidence in the potential this team has to be very competitive in the Mountain West. Having a few key seniors on the roster like catcher Bailey Lewis helps foster that competitive nature and confidence these players have. It also helps the coaching staff be able to work on multiple things at once, knowing you have an extension of the staff on the field.
“I’ve seen all of them as catchers say- this is something you need to work on, this is why this curveball didn’t work, or this screwball,” Heberling said. “So I hear it, and it makes me smile inside, just because you know that they want to get better and they want to continue to grow as a staff, they’re committed.”
Utah State kicks off their season Friday, Feb. 8 in Fullerton, Calif., where the Aggies will take on Northwestern in the first of five games as part of the Titan Classic.
Twitter: @dren_sports