A little more than midway through the conference season, the Hastings College softball team is sitting at record of 22-18 overall and 9-5 in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC). In what was thought to potentially be a rebuilding year. Senior captain Cara Williams gave her thoughts on the season thus far.
“Overall, I think (the season) has gone fine,” Williams said. “It could be a lot better. We don’t focus as well. I think we could have a couple more conference wins than we do right now, but we just have to keep pushing forward and focus on the games we do have coming up.”
Looking down the schedule for the Broncos, the brunt of it is over. They split with No. 10 Morningside, Concordia, Dakota Wesleyan, and Mount Marty. They’ve swept Doane and Midland. However, they still have doubleheaders with Dordt, College of Saint Mary and Northwestern to finish off the regular season. Williams says she’s confident in the team’s ability to make a run at a GPAC title.
“Honestly, I think we can go and make a run at conference right now,” William said. “. . . I’m thinking we can still be a host, be a second seed and host conference, but if not we’re going to go wherever we go and put our best foot forward and hopefully win those games.”
The team, overall, is young. The Broncos only have four seniors on their roster, which has forced them to look to their youth for help on both sides of the diamond. The freshman, so far, have been able to provide a spark, especially, Lexie Linderman.
Linderman, a two-way player, has seen success in the circle, but, perhaps, is making more of a name for herself at the plate. She leads the team in batting average and runs batted in (RBI) and is ranked fourth in the country in total home runs with 13. The freshman spoke about her standout season at the plate.
“It is really special being ranked fourth (in the country in home runs), but I don’t want the ranking to effect my overall playing, (so I) act like it’s nothing and keep going from there,” Linderman said.
Linderman, who suffered an injury prior to the season beginning, said that it nice to see all her hard work to get back on the field pay off. The freshman has also had to adjust and separate what happens on and off the field.
“There is a lot of people that come up to me, telling me how well I have to play against a certain team and yes, that does put pressure on me and makes me nervous. (Out on the field) I stay calm about it and (try) not to overthink anything because if I try too hard, then I’ll end up messing up,” Linderman said.
Perhaps lost in the season thus far are the accomplishments of senior Chloe Boeka, who recently etched her name in the Hastings College record books. Boeka became the Broncos’ all-time leader in hits and runs scored throughout her four-year career at HC. However, it isn’t something the senior is too focused on.
“I would say I’m pretty hard on myself,” Boeka said. “I mean, I try to do really well every game, so I don’t really think about all of that. . . I’m just trying to have fun.”
The Broncos have faced plenty of adversity this season and are likely to experience some more heading down the stretch, but their focus remains on getting into the GPAC tournament and taking it day-by-day.
