Softball Ready for Season Opener
ARTICLE BY MICHAEL BAUER | ODESSA AMERICAN
At this point, advancing to the NJCAA Tournament is expected each year at the Odessa College softball program.
What's expected this season, at least from head coach Doug Eastman, is a deeper run in the national tournament.
With eight players returning from last year's 43-14 team that advanced to the tournament for the fourth consecutive year, the Lady Wranglers are excited for this season as Eastman enters his second year in charge of the program.
"It feels great," Eastman said of the returning players. "Anytime you can bring back eight starters and only miss your second baseman, that's a huge plus for us. we played pretty well with last year's group. We went 23-1 in conference. I expect good things out of them. Just the experience and leading the new freshmen group is going to be huge. We're going to be really solid."
Another reason for Eastman and his team to be excited for this season is the Lady Wranglers will have four pitchers instead of just two like last year.
Last year, the Lady Wranglers were relying on just Mia Perez and Avery Truss to carry the load in the circle for them.
This year, the Lady Wranglers' pitching staff will include Anays Perez, Hadyn Milley, Seniah Haines and Jayda Lorigan.
"I can't say enough about our two young ladies last year in what they accomplished and always being ready and always being healthy. But it's not going to win a national tournament and we knew that. I think we accomplished as much as we could last year. But there's no excuse this year. We have four standout pitchers and when I say four, all four of them can be our number one pitcher. We're going to throw arms at you. We're going to keep coming at you. If somebody doesn't have their day, somebody else will. We're going to be tough to deal with down the stretch."
The majority of last year's team was made up of freshmen.
This year, most of them return with crucial experience of having been to the national tournament.
That includes batter Mason Barclay, who last year entered the tournament leading the NJCAA in batting average with .558.
She finished last year with 81 hits and 76 RBIs.
Other returning players include outfielder Taryn Blazevich, who had 67 hits and 43 RBIs last year, infielder Reganied Franka, who had 65 hits and 39 RBIs last year and Odessa's own Diveli Cherry, who had 57 hits and 60 RBIs in 2024.
With a young team last year, the Lady Wranglers were defeated in the third round of the NJCAA Tournament by Temple and then in the elimination round by Trinidad State but still managed a 12-7 win against powerhouse Florida Southwestern State College and a 10-2 win against Trinidad State in the first round.
"It's huge," Eastman said of his players getting to experience last year's tournament. "They know what it takes. They knew they could compete with anyone at the national tournament if we had more pitching depth. The only thing we lacked was being able to go deep into a tournament when we had tired arms. Our defense was great and our hitting was fine. We're going to be ready to go. I don't think any team in the country might have eight returning players at the two-year level."
Odessa College will begin the new season in this week's Battle on the Bosque tournament in Waco.