Lady Jays gear up for softball season

Mar. 30—WORTHINGTON — A new season of softball at Minnesota West Community and Technical College has just begun, and this year is expected to look different than last year.

Under second-year head coach Keith Swenson, the Lady Jays currently have 12 players on the roster this season with two sophomore returners.

One of those returners is Makenzie Allen, a Baltic, South Dakota native who played catcher on the team last year. This year, she'll rotate between her typical catcher position and shortstop. Last year, she batted .352, hit three home runs and was the team's leader in runs scored with 21.

Another returner is Courtney Moser, a left fielder from Highmore, South Dakota who also played volleyball for the Lady Jays in the fall.

Other than that, the rest of the Minnesota West squad features newcomers, some of which have never played softball before. A couple of newcomers on the roster Swenson highlighted were pitcher Alayna Wingate and infielder Keyton Elser, each of whom Swenson coached at Sibley-Ocheyedan High School. Other members of the team include Lady Jay basketball players Ava Parrish, Olivia Hensch and Aisha Ziedi.

"We got some new girls that I've never seen before, but I'm hoping that we have a good solid defense and keep our scores low," Swenson said. "Last year, we were more of an offensive team and this year I think we're going to be more of a defensive team."

Swenson said the softball team hasn't had many opportunities to practice together, in part because of the Lady Jays basketball season recently coming to an end, so practice early on has been dealing with individual work and fundamentals.

That will also be the focus early on in the team's game schedule as the players begin learning how to play together.

"We just need some games now to see what we need to do," Swenson said. "And some of these girls have never played softball before, so we're learning the basics, you know, how to run bases, how to slide, how to catch, how to throw. I think we're gonna have a lot of fun and I hope we can compete with the other teams."

The Lady Jays played 15 games last year, with many games throughout that season being canceled. Their record was 6-9 overall and 5-6 against opponents out of the MCAC South division. They scored 105 runs last year and hit 14 home runs. Swenson expects the Jays to be a more defensive team that will hopefully keep scores low, compared to last year's squad that featured more hitting.

"I mean, last year we had the bats. We hit home runs a lot," said the coach. "I don't think we're gonna get home runs this year, not like last year. Last year, we even had, like, eight home runs in one doubleheader, which was amazing. We hit the ball so far last year, so again, I think our defense and our pitching will keep us in the games and hopefully, we score enough runs to win."

This season's schedule began with three games in Rochester Friday and Saturday. After that, the Jays are scheduled for a home-opening doubleheader Tuesday against Rochester CTC to open South division play.

Minnesota West then is scheduled for two more home doubleheaders against M State Fergus Falls (April 6) and St. Cloud Technical CC (April 13) in the beginning of the season.

Swenson said his main focus is on seeing his team compete and improve throughout the year more so than on the team's record.

"I don't really look at win-losses or that kind of thing," Swenson said. "I just want to see our girls improve and get better and compete and whatever happens happens, but I never I've never ever looked at wins and losses."