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Printer-Friendly ModeDespite improvements, Cards fall short
June 8, 2009 —
World Series dreams drifted away for the Cardinals softball team this past season despite how close the players came to competing for the championship.
However, a year after finishing 34-17 in head coach Everett Roper’s debut season, the Cards improved their record to 39-11.
After advancing to the Super Regionals to face off in a best of three series against Indianapolis, the Cards won the first game before dropping the final two games to miss out on making it to the World Series.
The Cards were full of confidence heading into the series against Indy, having won eight in a row. Senior pitcher Stacy Kraatz doesn’t think that the Cards’ were booking their hotel in Virginia early, where the World Series was to be hosted, after beating Indy in the first game.
“Coming into the series, we expected to win the first game and the next,” Kraatz said. “I’m sure having the possibility of going to Nationals was on a lot of girls’ minds, but I don’t believe that got in our way of playing in the series against Indy.”
Roper, who has compiled a 73-28 record in his first two seasons at the helm, believes the Cardinals’ winning streak heading into the series didn’t necessarily indicate how the Cards were playing.
“The last couple weeks of the season, we weren’t swinging the bat like we had been throughout the year,” Roper said. “We hadn’t allowed more than six runs in a game all season, and that last game, they scored 12 on us. The deeper you get into the playoffs, the harder the competition is, and that’s what the case was in the series.”
The struggles at the plate that Roper was referring to can be seen in the Cards’ last six wins of the season in which they scored no more than three runs.
Departing from the team are five seniors, including Kraatz and outfielder Marsha Beaubien, who were the GLIAC Players of the Year in ’08 and ’09. Roper admits that losing players of that caliber will be tough on the team, although he has confidence that the team has the depth to challenge for a spot in the World Series next season.
“The legacy of this senior class will not only be of how they performed on the field, but how they taught the younger players. They were able to go out and perform and set a good example while also being able to show other girls the right way to do things. They all had great leadership skills, and that’s what will be missed the most,” Roper said.
When Kraatz looks back on her collegiate career, she will have a number of individual accomplishments to marvel at, including pitching a perfect game along with breaking the school record for most career home runs. However, the thing that she will always remember will be her teammates.
“The accomplishments that I have achieved are all definitely exciting, but the one thing that stands out the most for me during my four years is the girls. They are what truly make the game fun and during my four years. They were my home away from home,” Kraatz said.
While the team loses a number of its key components, the expectations that Roper has heading into next season have not been diminished.
“We have a number of young players that are ready to step up, which gets me excited talking about the future of SVSU softball. Our goal is still to win a National Championship, and I think that we have a good shot at achieving that goal in the near future.”