What a season!
By Gary Braham 5-17-2000
Colgate womens softball..4 out of 12 players on the team make all Patriot League first team, another one gets second team. Colgate only wins 3 out of 10 league games. We finish 5th out of 6 teams, then finish the season by getting some amazing recruits. It's been an odd season, lets take a look.
Last years team won the Patriot Leauge title and advanced to the NCAA's. Pitching was Colgate's key, but, our starter graduated. Beth Haas saw most of the starting jobs for Colgate, but could not equal her predecessors accomplishments. Colgate had some good young hitters, and fielding was a strong point as well.
The early season saw a tough schedule for Colgate. They grew together as a team against some tough competition. We also hosted an invintational early in the season. The Patriot League schedule began positivly, with a sweep of Bucknell. The rest of the season did not go as well. Playing a complete game seemed to be an issue. The hitting wasn't as consistant, and the pitching wasn't always there for a whole game. Colgate had some great hitters, but they could never put them together.
We had more than our share of Patriot Leauge players of the week, 4 of our starters were named first team, another one named second team. In the end, many Colgate and league records fell to this years team. 5 of the 10 top batting averages in the league came from Colgate. Enough accolades, wait till you hear our record in the league.... 3 wins, 7 losses.
Thats right, after all that, we finished next to last in the league we were the champions of last year. Some of the games were very close, others were ended on the mercy rule. Not a banner year by any measure as far as the standings are concerned. Colgate was only average in runs given up, we were above average for hitting and fielding. It just never came together for Colgate, thats all you can really say.
Then you have our recruits. Next year we will have three players who can probally get into a much better softball program. We have signed two amazing pitchers, both with a HS ERA of less than 1.00 in a competative league. I can only assume that the two of them will be our starters for the next 4 years. We also got a slugger who will add even more power to our lineup, as well as being a top notch outfielder.
Considering that 3 of our all league players will be returning. The team is still young too. The class of rising seniors is pretty small, we will still have a young team next year, but with more experience. It also might be announced that the league tournament might be held at the highest seed. Will we see Colgate get crowned champions at home....FOR THE NEXT 4 YEARS!!!!? Just a thought....