If the 2008 season was any indication of where Ohio’s softball program is heading, coach Jill Matyuch and returning players have a reason to be hopeful.
Not only did the Bobcats maintain a 10-12 Mid-American Conference record from last season and improve their overall record to 29-26 — their best record in six years — they also made it to the MAC Championship game for the first time since 1986.
Graduating seniors will be leaving quite a few openings on the field for Ohio. All six seniors were in the starting lineup and made major contributions to the team.
“They are definitely leaving the program better than they found it,” Matyuch said. “The kind of experience they provided for this team was incredible. They provided the kind of leadership this group needed, and it’s up to our returnees to fill some of those gaps.”
Michelle Sauter, who ended the season with a 2.20 ERA and a 15-10 record, set a new school record for strikeouts with 425 in her career. She was the first Bobcat to get to the 400 mark. She also holds the new record for wins with 48.
“Obviously, based on the numbers, Michelle has been the best pitcher this program has ever seen,” Matyuch said.
Matyuch said that freshman stand-out Emily Wethington, who finished this season with a 13-12 record, a 2.47 ERA and a team-best 138 strikeouts, and sophomore Candace Saucedo, who spent most of the season battling back from a knee injury, will both have much larger roles next year to fill the void left by Sauter.
In the outfield, Courtney Waters and Maureen McKelvey will depart, leaving Shalene Petrich as the only returning starter in the outfield.
Waters played in left field but made her presence felt most at the plate as the leadoff hitter. She ended the season with 49 runs scored and 59 hits leading the team in both categories. She also led in triples and on-base percentage.
“You want speed and on-base percentage in that leadoff spot,” Matyuch said. “Courtney had a great eye, she walked a lot, she put the ball in play and got on base a lot. That’s what you want out of that position.”
McKelvey leaves right field open. This season McKelvey got her first home run of her career and added two more on top of that.
“She played a lot of positions for us,” Matyuch said. “One of the things she did for us was embrace that role in right field. She offered us outs in right field instead of hits. She threw a lot of people out at first. She was able to perform well in clutch situations.”
One of the biggest reasons for Ohio’s success was their leadership, which mostly came from the middle infielders, Alicia Catlette and Amanda Sacks, along with third baseman Kristen Salvatore. All three are seniors, leaving Deanna Hartsough as the only returning starter in the infield at first base.
The middle infield has to “be a unit, and Alicia and A.J. (Sacks) were really a unit,” Matyuch said, adding that Salvatore exceeded all of her expectations at third.
“The highlight of the year was pulling together as a team,” Sauter said about her final season as a Bobcat. “Every now and again, we didn’t pull out the wins we wanted, but we bounced back, and we didn’t used to do that in the past. I think that showed a lot of growth for our team.”
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