Utah State softball set to begin 2019 campaign
This Friday Utah State softball starts their 2019 campaign with a trip to Fullerton, California for a three day tournament against some formidable competition. 2019 is a year that has the hopes to be a bounce-back from a disappointing 18-34 season in 2018.
The Aggies do have some impact players coming back for another season, including its best pitcher from last year as well as some key position players and three of its top six batters from a season ago. Sophomore Delaney Hull may be the only returning pitcher on the roster, but she was by far its best last season. Hull finished with a 9-9 record and a 2.5 strikeouts to walks ratio, but her ability to hold teams to as few runs as possible might be her greatest strength. Her 2.66 era was sixth in the Mountain West last season.
Delaney Hull (10) pitches for USU during the Nevada game on March 29, 2018. (Kyle Todecheene)
“We have a young, young staff, but she’s been a leader,” pitching coach Laura Heberling said. “She’s got the pitching experience, she’s got the mind-frame that she’s ready to go after meeting with her over and over.”
Another key member of the team returning, and one of only three seniors, catcher Bailey Lewis is poised to be one of the leaders on this team. Lewis is a versatile, intuitive catcher combing her ability to lead her unit with being a .280 hitter last season, third best of returning players.
“Having our senior Bailey Lewis at practices reminding them that it’s still just a game, it’s almost like an extension of me sometimes just to help them,” Heberling said.
Some new additions to the Aggies’ squad include two new coaches, eight freshman and a transfer. A couple familiar faces will be joining head coach Steve Johnson in his sixth season with the program, the aforementioned Heberling and Jo Koons, both former players of head coach Steve Johnson. Heberling will be coaching the pitchers and catchers this season, as a former pitcher herself. Koons will oversee the outfield players and the slappers, having had experience playing and coaching multiple positions over her career. Koons feels this may be one of the strongest groups on the team.
“They’re competitive. I think the outfield is going to be one of our most competitive positions on the team, we have seven outfielders fighting for three spots on the field,” Koons said.
The outfield features two of the Aggies’ top returning batters; sophomore Leah Molina and junior Riley Plogger. Molina finished second on the team last year with a .319 batting average as well as 23 stolen bases. Plogger is more of an aggressive hitter, hitting seven home runs and 23 runs batted in, to go along with a .303 batting average.
Riley Plogger (27) hits a homerun for USU against Nevada on March 29, 2018. (Kyle Todecheene)
Out of the eight freshman on the roster for the Aggies, six of them are from California, including high school teammates Lexi Orozco and Kenzie Bolin. Although that might sound strange for a team located in Utah, this is a staple of Johnson’s tenure as head coach, resulting in more than half of the roster being from the golden state.
“It’s interesting you know, California softball is a big thing,” Lewis said. “The one thing the coaches do really well is they recruit girls with similar passions and similar views as an athlete and as a competitor. I think bringing all that California love and even the girls out of state or in-state, bringing that and having the same love for the game and the same want to compete has allowed us to be a unit and a family.”
Kapri Toone and Chloe Nightingale are two more freshmen who are hoping to make an immediate impact, both of whom will be featured in the Aggies’ starting rotation throughout the season. Although it may be a young team, featuring 14 underclassmen of 22 players on the roster, this team is definitely a confident group. They view last year’s season as more of an anomaly than the standard for their program.
Aggie softball is passion, it’s love for the game, it’s hard work, it’s all of our core values that we talk about.” – senior catcher Bailey Lewis
“I think of this new year, new team, that’s what I always think of when a new group comes in,” Heberling said. “From day one these players here have been so focused…people come and go from other schools in the conference, they’ve lost people to, so if we just focus on who we are as a team, it’s going to take care of itself.”
This past season in Mountain West play, Utah State went 7-17 and won just two out of eight three-game series, against UNLV and New Mexico. Both of the wins were on the road, making the Aggies’ home record of 3-12 that much more prominent. This is something the team feels they have worked hard to change for this upcoming season.
“I think this team has really grounded the whole idea of what we’re here to do and I think because of that, I think it’s going to be a fun season for people to watch,” Lewis said. “So you know if our Aggie fans can definitely come out and see that we’ve worked our tails off this whole fall and beginning of spring, I think they’re really going to be impressed.”
Utah State doesn’t play its first home game until March 22, but it does have some tough matchups over the next month and a half to open up the season. This weekend the Aggies will be playing in the Titan Classic, held in Fullerton, and will be facing quality opponents by the likes of Northwestern, Louisville, Loyola Marymount and Cal State Fullerton. Across the coming weeks, Utah State will also be taking on top 25 teams Florida and Arizona State. As daunting as that might seem, the schedule also features some more winnable games, according to coach Johnson.
“Fullerton is a location for us, that there’s usually a lot of teams there that we matchup well with,” he said. “So we’re not going to go out and play top twenty right away, we want to go out and compete and get some wins under our belt early and build up our win-loss record for conference play so we’re confident and rolling a little bit when we enter Mountain West play.”
Even though they will be playing the first 27 games on the road, the coaching staff feels the team is prepared and ready to go through it and come out the other side a better group.
“You don’t want to hit a peak the first couple of weekends, you want to see what’s out there, who’s playing well together,” Heberling said. “This team is more ready to face somebody else than a lot of teams out there because we’ve been scrimmaging each other.”
The players are just as eager to get out and face the competition.
“One of the players actually said, ‘we’re all competing in here, and we’re so excited to go out and compete against them,’ and that’s what is so exciting,” Heberling said. “Focusing on our strengths, that’s going to help us for this season to really focus on our end goal, and that’s wanting to be Mountain West champs.”