How these Chatham Glenwood softball twin sisters live up to the family legacy
CHATHAM — Cassie Feld doesn’t try anything extra.
The Chatham Glenwood senior simply makes solid contact — and physics takes care of the rest.
She tied Maya Black’s school record for home runs in a softball season with nine last year and recently broke Carolyn Franke’s career benchmark with her 17th dinger in a 4-0 victory over Pontiac on March 21 — her first of the season.
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“I think it’s just because I’m tall, so it goes far,” said the 6-foot Feld.
Her twin sister, Kate, said they seemingly happen every fifth game.
“I never think it’s out,” Cassie said. “I always hit it and I start running, and it’s just somehow over.”
Kate can also launch the long ball and has 13 career homers herself. “They’re just good hitters and got some strength, so if they barrel it up, it leaves,” said coach Vondel Edgar.
Last hurrah
The Feld twins took up other sports, but softball proved to be their best.
It’s in their DNA.
Their dad, Chris, and uncle, Adam, previously played baseball at Glenwood. Adam led the Titans to the 1996 Class AA state title and was hailed as the Central State Eight Conference Baseball Player of the Year.
Cassie and Kate’s young sister, Carlyann, is also a sophomore on the team, along with twin cousins, Sophia and Sydney — both freshmen.
“It’s been really fun,” Kate said of playing with Cassie. “It’s more fun with Cassandra and it’s always nice to know that you have someone else with you all of the time.”
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Cassie and Kate additionally travel together with Premier Fastpitch, headed by longtime Buffalo Tri-City/Sangamon Valley softball coach Brad Sturdy.
But they will go their separate ways after this season. Cassie will resume softball at NJCAA Division II Parkland College while Kate will stay local at NCAA Division II University of Illinois Springfield.
“We’ll miss each other, but we’ll still see each other all of the time,” Cassie said.
Deep arsenal
They are the only seniors on a young but talented starting lineup.
Both Cassie and Kate were named all-CS8 last season. Ditto sophomore pitcher Irie Lohrenz, sophomore leadoff hitter Ryleigh Kiel and junior catcher Taryn Griffith. The Titans went unbeaten in the CS8 at 18-0 for a second straight season and finished 29-2-1 overall, falling to Mount Zion in the Class 3A sectional final.
“We always have good, younger kids,” Kate said. “They’re always a very vital part of the team and just consistently get better all of the time.
“It’s really impressive because whenever I was that young, I was not as good as these girls. It’s really good to see and we just have even more kids coming along.”
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Kate said that depth is a testament to Edgar’s program. Edgar was voted into the Illinois Coaches Association softball hall of fame in 2019.
“I think a lot of it comes down to coach Edgar,” Kate said. “If you look at teams, the reason they have a good team is because they have a good coach and they have a coach with a good legacy and he’s been here for a long time.
“He’s built this thing in Chatham where softball is always good, ‘Put your kids in softball.’
Star infielders
Cassie and Kate share the infield together — the former primarily at first base and the latter at third and shortstop.
Cassie, who was named ICA all-state second team, is also a tough pitcher in the circle. She went 4-0 with a 2.12 ERA and 37 strikeouts in 36.1 innings while batting a .521 average with 49 hits, 47 RBIs and 27 runs last spring.
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She approached this season with 91 career RBIs and may be on pace to break Franke’s RBI record of 138.
Kate posted a .333 batting average with 26 hits, 34 runs and 26 RBIs last year. She hopes the regular season will steel the team for a deeper postseason run this year.
“We’re just doing the same thing we did last year: taking it one game at a time,” Kate said. “We played good teams last year, but we play better teams this year, and we have some really good teams ahead of us and I think that’s going to prepare us for sectionals because I think last year in sectionals, the pitching kind of caught us off guard.
“But now we’re going to be playing all of these girls and we’re going to see all of these different pitchers and I think that’s just really going to help us when we get to the postseason.”
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Twins Cassie, Kate Feld dole out homers for Chatham Glenwood softball
