Bloomfield College Women’s Softball has High Hopes for the Coming Season

By Bloomfield College student Tracey Stern

Bloomfield College’s women’s softball team is ready to improve its record and join the college’s other athletic programs on the road to success.

Last year’s team finished with a 24-22 record, the second-best record for a women’s softball team since BC became a Division II college.  But this year’s team has a different look, following the graduation of two key seniors last year team and the addition of six junior college transfers.

This season, the entire starting lineup is expected to consist of eight juniors and one sophomore when the team has its first spring season game on March 13.

Returning players include sophomores Katie Aumann, Kailah Dugger and Angie Yoshizu, who was last season’s CACC Rookie of the Year.  Also returning are juniors Ashton Corley, Krystina Poloni, Ashleigh Williams, Jocelyn Cabrera and Lindsey Ciresa, and Seniors Deana Dedovich and Dali Perez.  Corley, Poloni, Ciresa, and Yoshizu earned All CACC honors last season.

Incoming transfer students include Brandi Bodin (Ridgewater College in Willmar, MN), Allison Schraer (Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT), Alexandria Smith (Eastern Arizona College in Graham County, AZ) and Samantha Dugan and Amanda Svenson from Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, NJ.

Team veterans and coaches have high expectations for the transfer students joining the Deacons.

For example, Bodin joins the Deacons after a 2011 season with Ridgewater College that lead them to a seventh place finish at the national championship tournament.  Deacon veterans said they’re hoping Bodin adds a spark to their team as the starting catcher.

“Brandi’s energy jumps off the field,” said Deacon’s veteran outfielder Ashton Corley. “Even just in the fall season, you could see that her enthusiasm had an impact on the team as a whole.  It brings us all up there with her.”

Deacons head coach Rocco Constantino has high praise for another new addition: pitcher Allison Schraer.  Pitching was an issue for the team last season, when the Deacon pitching staff ranked 13^th out of 14 CACC teams in ERA in 2011 and gave up the most walks in the conference.

“Allison is going to provide a big boost for our program,” Constantino said when the addition of Schraer to the team was announced. “We really needed to address our pitching situation in the offseason and she is the second quality pitcher we have added.  I feel she can compete for our number one spot for sure.”

Dugan and Svenson come to Bloomfield from Brookdale where they won the NJCAA Division III National Championship in 2010, and fell just short of making the tournament in 2011.

“(They) add a lot to our team individually and together,” said Yoshizu, of the transfers from Brookdale. “They’ve been playing together for about six years so they have a good chemistry and play really well together on the right side of the field.”