The 2006 edition of the Wittenberg Tiger softball team is without a senior, but that doesn't mean that the team is without hope. Far from it, actually, as Head Coach Becky Hall welcomes nine letterwinners back in the fold in hopes of returning to the top of the North Coast Athletic Conference heap.
Leading the charge in 2006 is junior shortstop Stephanie Zorn, who was named NCAC Player of the Year in 2005 after leading the Tigers in almost every offensive category. Zorn batted .404 while starting all 35 games at shortstop for the Tigers, who finished with a disappointing 11-24 overall record. Zorn was the team leader in hits (42), runs scored (25), doubles (7), triples (2), home runs (1), runs batted in (18) and walks (12). She was the top offensive player on the NCAC's third-best offensive team as the Tigers finished with a .285 average.
Despite Zorn's individual heroics, the Tigers fell just short of the 2005 NCAC Tournament, finishing with a 7-6 conference record. Wittenberg was victimized by, of all things, Mother Nature as a game against Kenyon was called in the third inning due to a thunderstorm. The Tigers had won the first game of the doubleheader and held a 1-0 lead in the nightcap, but the cancellation made it impossible for Wittenberg to catch fourth-place Denison (8-6) in the final standings. Wittenberg and Kenyon tied for fifth place, but the Tigers held a tiebreaker on Denison should those two teams have finished in a fourth-place tie.
Zorn has some support in the lineup this year, starting with junior Erin Collinsworth, who earned first-team All-NCAC honors as a designated player after hitting a .344 with one home run and 12 RBI in 2005. In addition, sophomore Sarah Fetters, who can play almost any position on the field but is penciled in primarily at second base in 2006, is coming off a debut collegiate season in which she batted .283 with 23 runs, five doubles and five stolen bases in five attempts. And junior Grace Wigton came on strong in 2005 as well, playing several different defensive positions and batting .276 in 30 games, all of them starts. She drove in nine runs and also played outstanding defense with a .955 fielding percentage.
The Tigers' other returning letterwinners are junior Lucy Huelsman, who has bounced back and forth between the outfield and third base early in her collegiate career, sophomore Taryn Hensel, the team's top returning pitcher, junior outfielder Meghan Campbell, and sophomores Nicole Ottavi and Amy Myser, who both appeared in more than 25 games a year ago.
The Tigers must replace four-time All-NCAC honoree Norah Gillam, the team's top pitcher in 2005 who also had a .330 batting average while starting all 35 games, and outfielder Ashley Lands, who batted .356 in 2005, but help is on the way in 2006 in the form of a six-person freshman class. The key will be getting pitching help for Hensel, who made 18 appearances, including 12 starts, a year ago in compiling a 4-6 record with a 4.27 earned run average, and Wigton, who had a 4.03 ERA in 12 appearances, nine of which came in relief. For the Tigers to climb back above .500 in 2006, their team ERA must come down substantially from the 3.93 figure posted in 2005.
Newcomers Rachael Hatcher and Alisha Degenhart figure to provide just such aid this year, and both will also see substantial playing time in the field as well. Erin Meredith, Julie Ziegler, Alyssa Schmidt and Amanda Glacken round out the freshman class for the 2006 season, and all will get opportunities, possibly at multiple positions.