2016 Shorter Softball Schedule

By Jim O'Hara
 
ROME, Ga. – The historic success the team had at the end of the season last year has put them into the national spotlight as they get ready to begin a new campaign.

The Shorter softball team, however, will take the field for the first time in 2016 fully aware that as the nation's No. 3-ranked program in the NCAA Division II preseason poll, a status that comes after advancing to last year's College World Series Final Four, every team it faces will be out to get them.

And at the same time, despite their phenomenal showing in 2015, the Lady Hawks start the new year having to prove themselves once again in arguably the toughest Division II league in the land, the Gulf South Conference, whose coaches picked defending GSC champion Shorter to finish third when it's all said and done.

"We've got to forget about what we did last year and understand that there's an even bigger target on our backs now," Shorter head coach Al Thomas, who guided the team to a 43-15 record and the conference and NCAA South Region championships to earn the program's first-ever trip to the World Series, said about the new challenges the Lady Hawks face as they embark on their new season Friday when they head to Clearwater, Fla., to play five games over a three-day span in the annual Eckerd College Softball Invitational.

"And the Gulf South the toughest conference in the nation, there no question about it," he said as the Lady Hawks, who is the defending conference champion, finds itself respectively behind No. 6-ranked Valdosta State and No. 18 Alabama-Huntsville in the preseason poll. "The team that comes out of the GSC will be right there in the hunt for a national championship.

"We still have to prove ourselves."

From all indications, the Lady Hawks are poised to do just that as Shorter returns many of the key players who tasted success a year ago and has put together a roster that is deeper than ever before.

Heading up the lineup once again will be the player that got her collegiate career off to a remarkable start last season – sophomore centerfielder and lead-off hitter Niki Cook, who became the Lady Hawks' first-ever NFCA Division II All-American as a freshman and this week was named to the NFCA/Schutt Sports Player of the Year Watch List.

Cook begins her second season with the Lady Hawks hoping to pick up where she left off a year ago, when she became a thorn in the sides of foes at the plate – she led Shorter with a .389 batting average, posted a team high 72 hits and scored 66 runs – and on the base paths, where she stole 59 bases (the most in Division II) on 61 attempts.

But Cook, who was named the 2015 GSC Freshman of the Year and an All-GSC First Team selection, is just the tip of Shorter's spear. Also back for the Lady Hawks is their entire infield comprised of junior first baseman Ericka Bynum, sophomore second baseman Carson Carriker, senior shortstop Kendall Johnson and third baseman Kameron Carter.

Johnson, an All-GSC Second Team pick a year ago and joins Cook and Bynum as 2016 All-GSC Preseason selections, is Shorter's lone senior on the roster this year, and returns after starting every game in 2015 when she batted .370 with 67 hits – 25 for extra bases with 10 home runs - and drove in a team-high 56 runs, as well as recording a career-high 27 steals.

Bynum, who is a preseason All-GSC pick for the second straight year, is back to anchor the infield at first and pick up where she left off at the plate when she hit .328 with 61 hits, had six homers and had 54 RBI.

Carter and Carriker round out the veteran infield look with Carter coming off a 2015 output in which she hit .300 and drove in 39 RBI while Carriker, who had a .220 batting average, proved her defensive skills last season recording a solid .970 fielding average.

With five tested veterans back in the lineup, Thomas feels that the Lady Hawks have the right stuff to take over the positions he needs to fill.

Expected to see time in the outfield beside Cook includes a pair of transfers, junior Savannah Thomas (Troy) and sophomore Peyton Barthel (Jacksonville State), and freshmen Maddie Hunt and Tiffany Holland.

Behind the plate, sophomore catcher Taylor Ann Oda, who saw limited action a year ago, is one of three backstops the Lady Hawks will be counting on, along with junior transfer Sierra Cagle (Georgia Highlands) and freshman Becca Gomez, and rounding out the options the team has on the field and at the plate will be sophomore Abi Valdes, junior transfer Bre Richey (West Georgia Tech) and freshmen Taylor Martin and Dani Lukas.

On the mound, however, is where Thomas and the Lady Hawks have turned their attention as Shorter will open the season with a new starting rotation.

"Since we lost our top two pitchers from last year," said Thomas, "pitching is the big question mark for us."

What isn't questioned is whether or not the Lady Hawks have a closer as junior Kalei Kimbrell is ready improve on what she did last season when the right-hander led the nation with nine saves while posting an 8-2 record with a 2.33 ERA in 75 innings.

And expected to assume spots in Shorter's starting rotation will be sophomore Hannah Draper, who saw limited action last season but whom Thomas said had a strong fall performance, and freshmen Payton Lippert and Brittany Cagle.

"The cool thing about this year's team is we have a lot more depth and players fighting for playing time," said Thomas. "We're so excited we have more options that we've had before."

The Lady Hawks will certainly get plenty of opportunities to do that this weekend when they travel to the Sunshine State to compete in the Eckerd Invitational, facing Palm Beach Atlantic and St. Leo on Friday, squaring off against Lynn and Barry on Saturday, and closing out the trip Sunday taking on Florida Southern.

A week later on Feb. 13, Shorter dives into its GSC slate when the Lady Hawks host conference foe Christian Brothers for a two-day three-game series, the first of 14 straight contests they will play at the Alto Park Softball Complex.

"We finished real strong a year ago which you need to do," Thomas said, "but for the first three-quarters of the season we weren't happy with the way we played. We know we have to be more consistent throughout the season."