Midwestern State’s softball coach, Brittaney Talley, hopes for a turnaround year, bringing ten new players to star in the upcoming season.
The Mustangs faced a challenging season last spring, hooking in a record of 11-31 in conference play. The Maroon and Gold finished as the third-lowest-ranked team in the league and has not qualified for the Lone Star playoffs for seven years.
The last time MSU appeared in the conference tournament was in 2016 when the Mustangs lost in the semifinals.
Last season went “a little rough” as Coach Talley says, but she believes this year’s recruits will play a big role in the team’s success. Talley focused on building a more complete team with more experienced players and stronger leaders.
“We brought in some new people that communicate better and show some good leadership,” Talley said, “Last year we were playing a lot of freshmen, so that was a little dangerous, but they’re maturing and growing this year. Now we have a good mix of upperclassmen and lowerclassmen.”
This past fall, the team worked on getting closer together as a group and helping each other grow as players. This is a major step from last year where, as pre-dental senior Chloe Bryant explained, “We struggled with knowing each other really well.”
“We knew our strengths and weaknesses, but we didn’t have enough people coming in and putting in the extra work; we didn’t have that type of effort showing,” Bryant said, “This year, that’s what’s going to take us in the long run.”
The Mustangs welcomed four transfers and six freshmen into the program, who helped redefine the team’s culture and work ethic. Two of the players, criminal justice junior Myranda Jimenez and nursing freshman Addison Lindemann were listed as “Players to Watch” in LSC’s preseason highlight.
“I can always count on my teammates to give everything they have,” Lindemann says, “We are not going to let ourselves be an easy win for any rival team – we’re going to fight all the way and that’s our biggest strength.”
Talley said the team’s biggest strengths are how much the players believe in themselves and how hard they are willing to work and make each other better.
“They’re committed and they’re bought into each other which is the first step. Nobody is scared to fail and if we do fail, we’re failing forward,” she said, “Their little team motto is ‘fast and furious,’ so they want to do the work and get better which is always a plus.”
As the first conference games are fast approaching, the Mustangs have one major goal for this season: earning a spot in the Lone Star playoffs. To do so, Talley’s team must place 10th or higher in the league by the end of the season.
“I think this will be a much better season than what we had the past three or four years. We should be able to earn a spot in the Lone Star tournament,” Talley says. The players are hopeful as well.
“We all want to win at least half of our games and we want to make it to the Lone Star tournament for sure,” Bryant says, “We’re ready to come out and surprise people.”
The Mustangs had their season opener at the Division II First Pitch Invitational in Conroe, Texas this past weekend. MSU dropped three softball games but secured a 4-1 victory against Central Washington on Saturday.
MSU will face next play at home Friday at 12 p.m.
