Last season ended with a devastating letdown for the Cal Poly softball team, but the players are embracing the renewed sense of optimism that comes with a new team: a fresh start and most importantly, hindsight.
Expectations are high: Cal Poly was picked to win the Big West in the Big West preseason Softball Coaches Poll.
To get there, learning from the past will be key. The Mustangs head into the season with nine new members on the team, an important aspect considering players cited inexperience as a main cause of the losing season.
“We had a relatively young team and we were kind of inexperienced in college softball,” senior pitcher Anna Cahn said. “We didn’t do as well as we thought we would.”
The Mustangs started last season strong. They boasted an 8-2 record to start conference play, but lost their focus down the stretch and finished the season, 12-9 and 23-24 overall.
This year, of the 16 total players, 13 are freshmen or sophomores. In addition, new associate head coach Linda Garza adds one more to the long list of Mustang newcomers.
But Cahn said the mentality is different now, and with that new mentality came a new sense of determination.
“I feel like last year we didn’t come together as well as we should have,” Cahn said. “Now everyone is really encouraging. Since I’ve been here, it’s the best chemistry our team has had.”
Head coach Jenny Condon agreed. Condon said the team is cohesive, with purely positive thoughts and increased competition in their playing.
But the source of the optimism and momentum this year is still the exact thing the Mustangs cited as the cause of their demise in 2010.
The five seniors who helped lead the Mustangs to the Big West title in the 2009 season left the team, therefore adding five new freshmen to the 2010 roster.
Cahn said the shock of new members filling the spots of the seniors, who were all four-year starters, contributed to the team’s inexperience and in turn, the losing season.
The coaching staff said there were other weaknesses as well.
“There are a lot of factors that played into (the loss),” Condon said. “Our defense really struggled. We didn’t have what championship teams need. That is good pitching, defense and timely hitting. We fell short in all of those areas.”
But Condon said the upperclassmen have stepped up as leaders and the coaching staff has greatly improved with the addition of Garza. Garza has joined the Mustangs for her first season at Cal Poly, coming from Wright State University, where she was head coach.
“She has made a big impact,” Condon said. “She teaches hitting and base running, infield and outfield, and she is great at them.”
Garza is bringing important focus to these aspects of the game and is working with the Mustangs to strengthen the areas that struggled last season.
Last year’s freshmen recognize what happened and are not planning on allowing history to repeat itself.
This is Rebecca Patton’s second year pitching and said her first season of college softball was a great learning experience.
“I think towards the end we started losing focus a little because we were so young,” Patton said. “It had been such a long season.”
Patton said they are doing the only thing they can do — staying positive and working hard.
San Luis Obispo resident and former Cal Poly instructor Bob Orling, one of Mustang softball’s biggest fans, said he has seen great improvements in the team.
“The (preseason) practices have been really well organized,” Orling said. “They’re really working hard and they do a lot of really good drills.”
Orling, who used to play baseball and softball, also said the new players look like naturals.
“Players like Ashley Romano at second base and Kim Westland at shortstop — they have all the right moves and coordination,” he said.
Cahn and Patton both agreed. They said the sense of energy and determination in this new group of athletes could be the push they need to finish on top.
The team’s ultimate goal is to make it to Oklahoma City this year to have the chance to compete for a national championship. The first game on Feb. 11 is at Arizona State University. It will be the first test to see if the Mustangs are adapting to a young team and overcoming the obstacles previously holding them back.