Jackets Blog One Day Before Conference Opener

Greetings from Shauna, Kaycee, Kelly, and Aubrie,

Last week’s games got the team really excited about what was to come next this season.  Going 4-2 last week with splits against Trine and Olivet and sweeping Baldwin-Wallace, we were feeling pretty good both offensively and defensively.  Monday and Tuesday were spent preparing for our games against Heidelberg and the open of conference play this weekend. 

Today we had our first away games against Heidelberg after getting pushed back from yesterday’s scheduled contest.  We did a lot of little things right, like get on base, move runners into scoring position, made a few good catches in the field, but we were unable to put it all together to get two wins. Kind of a heartbreaker.  We’ll definitely be focusing on putting everything together at practice tomorrow in order to prepare for the start of conference play as we host Franklin on Saturday.  These will be two crucial games for the team to not only get ahead in HCAC standings, but also make it back to .500 on the season. 

Our teammates presented on the topics of intensity and alertness this week.  Marah, Nicole, Gloria, and Tiffany did a stellar job at relating the themes of the week to what we do both on and off the field.  These are two themes that are going to be really important this weekend against Franklin, because these games are so important in turning the tide in our favor for this season.   

The JV squad will be playing at Indiana Tech on Monday and the team is definitely excited!  The varsity squad will be out to support the team that afternoon for the first JV game of the season, which will give some of the younger kids collegiate experience and some others at bats and situations to better prepare for the varsity level. 

We’re praying for warmer weather on Saturday as the forecast is calling for snow.  Looking forward to seeing you all at the home games this weekend!  Peace!

Kelly, Kaycee, Shauna, Aubrie

Jackets Talk About First Week of Home Games

Our season got off to a quick start once back from Florida with a busy first week.  We started off splitting with Trine on Wednesday, sweeping Baldwin-Wallace Friday, and then splitting with Olivet on Saturday.  After playing in sunny Florida, we have surprisingly seen some nice weather for our game days, which is always a plus for the beginning of our season.

After struggling with producing offense in Florida, our bats finally came alive this past week.  All of our extra hitting practices when we returned definitely contributed to our better at bats.  Now that we have our bats back, we really need to work to get everything back together.  Once we have our defense and offense working together well, we will be a tough competitor for any team to compete against.

Anna Vasquez, Hallie Sullivan, and Tasha Stucke

Freshmen Jackets Chime in on Start to the Season

Softball season for the Defiance College Yellow Jackets softball team is in full swing. We kicked off our season in Kentucky at Centre College. We then continued our travels to Orlando, Florida, where we competed in the Rebel Spring Games tournament.

We started out the tournament strong by earning two wins on our very first day of competition. We worked hard as a team to fight back and earn another win in an extra-inning game. This win showed us our potential as a team to work together and compete strong as a team. As much as we enjoyed our time in Florida we are excited to get back home and show what we can do as a team.

Stephanie Esquibel, Mollee Galloway, Tiffany Rathwell, Maggie Neanan

Butt and Robinson Talk Florida Road Trip

As two seniors on the Defiance College Softball team, going to Florida is going to be very bitter sweet. While the excitement builds up surrounding our last and final pre season practice of our careers, we have a lot to prove to everyone, ourselves included. Our team is very talented and has put in a great amount of hard work over the past six weeks to prepare to get the season underway. 

Our first stop is in Danville, Kentucky against Centre College. After we sweep there, we’ll get back on the bus to drive overnight and arrive in Florida early Saturday morning. Stepping off the bus to see palm trees and feel warm weather is a feeling you look forward to every morning when you’re waking up at 4:00 a.m. We’ll practice our first morning there and then head out to the fields to watch games. Finally getting to see a softball field gets you pumped up and ready to play. A lot of the teams we play in Florida are comparable to teams we will face in our conference so it is nice to see competition on that level to help better prepare us once we get back up north. It’s a great feeling to get down there and know we have eight games against good opponents to go back up to school with some wins.

With only one practice left, Florida came quicker this year than it seemed to in the past three that we have been here.  While we are sad that this is our last trip down south in a Defiance uniform, we couldn’t be more excited to get going and get some games under our belts. We’ve got a very talented team this year and we can’t wait to show everyone what we’re all about. From throwing the Frisbee in the parking lot, walking to Old Town, and getting dirty playing the sport we love, Florida is an amazing experience and we couldn’t have picked a better group of team mates and coaches to share it with.

GAME TIME!!!

Kaycee Butt and Marah Robinson