Softball continues to climb
The softball season marked continued improvement, highlighted by records being broken, 30 wins on the season and a team winning record. The Bucs finished with a final record of 30-28-1 and an 8-10 mark in the Big South, before being eliminated in the conference tournament after a 1-2 record. In just his second year as a head coach, Shane Winkler has seemingly changed the culture surrounding the CSU softball program.
In each of his first two years, Winkler has created a team motto heading into the season. The 2010 motto: “Why not us? Why not now?” The slogan turned out to be more than just words to this group of Buccaneers, who posted the most wins the program has seen since 1993.
“I’m very proud of this year’s team and what they accomplished,” reflected Winkler. “Only about one-third of the country has a shot at 30 wins, so that says a lot about this group of players.”
If there is one common theme in all sports, it’s that winning breeds winning. Getting over the elusive .500 mark can be a struggle for some teams, as it has been for CSU softball for nearly a decade. But the 2010 Bucs managed to break the seal with a winning season and now have no plans of looking back.
“We took another big step forward by posting the first winning season since 2001 and that is only going to help with recruiting future players,” said Winkler. “For the past two years we have sold the idea of being a part of a winning program, and now we have established that we are a winning program and only look to get better.”
CSU capped off the regular season with a five game winning streak, the longest win streak in the Winkler era. The Bucs also posted some impressive individual wins on the season, with a 9-4 victory over No. 15 ranked Louisville and a 6-0 win vs. Virginia Tech. CSU faced off with crosstown rivals College of Charleston six times on the year, taking five out of six wins vs. the SoCon member.
These wins helped the Bucs to tally 56 wins over the past two seasons, compared to 33 wins in the two years before that. Now the goal for this team has changed from being a Big South competitor, to a Big South contender.
“We are all proud of what we’ve accomplished over the past two seasons,” said Winkler. “The goal is going to remain winning a Big South Championship and making it into the NCAA Tournament.”
The Bucs didn’t get to a 30-win season by accident; they got there by hitting the cover off the ball, while breaking nearly every major team and individual batting record. Megan Lombard broke individual season records for at bats, runs scored and total bases. Jana Matthews chipped in with an outstanding freshman season, breaking the single season homerun record. More of Matthews’ accomplishments are featured in the story: Matthews Makes the Most of Her Freshman Campaign at csusports.com
As a team, CSU set new program marks for homeruns, total hits, slugging percentage and total bases. To sum it up, the Bucs broke so many records this year that there was a new record book created for them.
Also contributing to the successful year were two seniors who stepped into leadership roles for the season. Megan Hall capped off one of the best careers in CSU history by leading the team with a .369 batting average. Hall finished her storied career as the all-time leader in runs scored, while finishing second in total hits, walks, on-base percentage and total bases.
Caitlin Allen also had a career year as a senior, tallying a 7-3 record in the circle to go along with a pair of saves. She finished her career tied for first in both single season and career saves. Allen also was named Big South Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the first CSU softball player to receive the award.
“Our seniors were a very big part of our success this season,” added Winkler. “They did a great job of leading our team both on and off the field as both Megan and Caitlin were great players and great students. We are going to miss their contributions, but it is nice to only have to replace two seniors compared to six a year ago. The experience that our young kids received will only help us as we move forward.
“I expect 2011 to be a very big year for Charleston Southern softball,” said Winkler. “We will have an experienced team as well as many new faces that will come in and contribute immediately. We will have competition at every position, which is only going to make everyone better as we will once again play a very challenging schedule.”
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