Tartan Softball Season Preview: Hoping to Make Strides This Season

The softball team is hoping to make big strides in the competitive Classic Suburban Conference under second-year head coach Brian Larson.

The Titans return five starters from last year and have a good mix of seniors and younger players.

Tartan was outscored by 2.3 runs per game last season, so Larson said he knows that they have to be more productive at the plate this year.

“The biggest thing for us to be much better this year is to be able to move runners when they are in scoring position,” Larson said. “We had a lot of trouble with that last year. We will be working on that quite a bit.”

Larson said the addition of assistant Jamie Hildebrandt to the coaching staff could pay big dividends this season. Hildebrandt, a pitching coach, is from Cottage Grove and was an All-State player. She went to Winona for school, but got hurt.

“She is going to help me with my pitching quite a bit," he said. "I am looking forward to this year, quite a bit more than last year.”

Larson said he expects an improved team on and off the field in his second season as head coach at Tartan.

“I had a pretty talented team last year, but there was a lot of in-fighting and things like that,” said Larson. “I think that it had something to do with the transition between me and the old coach, because I have quite a different style than he did. We’ve got a good group of kids that have been together quite a bit. I’m hoping for big things.”

Key returning players

Larson said this year’s team will be better defensively than last season’s squad, even though the team has to replace outfielder Hayley Richards, who graduated.

“She was very good last year," he said, "but I have Hallie Roth and she is pretty fast and she will fill in just fine." 

Katie Koren, who plans to attend Hamline University in the fall, will probably be one of the best players in the conference, he said.  

"She is a good hitter and a very good defensive catcher," he said. "Hopefully, I’ll see her in an All-State situation."

Larson said he feels that another key will be replacing graduate Katie Rieger.

“She was tough at third base, but I think that I can fill in pretty good there," he said. "We have two players, Shelby Ferstl and Jessica Fagely, so I think that we will be pretty strong."

Larson said he expects to see improvement from his pitching staff this season. He'll rely heavily on Amanda Erickson, who was injured last year, but Haley Macioch will be a good complement, he said.

“They are contrasting pitchers," he said. "Amanda has a power game and Haley tickles the corners. It will be a nice contrast, if I can mix them up.”  

Conference outlook

The Classic Suburban Conference 2010 champion was North St. Paul, which finished runner-up to Burnsville in Class AAA. The Polars finished 14-0 in conference play, five games ahead of second-place Hill-Murray.

Larson said he expects those two teams to once again battle for the conference title.

“It looks like it will be the same ones, Hill-Murray and North St. Paul, that it has been for a while,” Larson said. “We played both of them tough last year. This team just has to learn how to win.”

The two teams also have some of the top individual talent in the conference.  

“The two pitchers at North St. Paul, Carley Pickett and Tabitha Bayers are two young pitchers and they are pretty darn good,” he said. “Hill has a couple of kids that are pretty good. Teona Zepeda is a good pitcher and they have a good infielder and big hitter in Stephanie Borndale.

TARTAN TITANS SOFTBALL STATS

Last season: 4-17

Conference record: 3-11 (eighth place in Classic Suburban Conference)