The Pacific softball team fell short against Linfield in their final games of the season losing 9-4 and 8-4.
Head Coach Tim Hill said although there is room for improvement for next season, the Boxers still came out with some highlights during their season.
“We didn’t play to our standards as a program, which was disappointing, but we did have a lot of positive moments,” said Head Softball Coach Tim Hill.
The Boxers stormed through the first half of the conference with a total of 10 wins and five losses. They pulled together the talents of the team in hopes to come out on top in the Northwest Conference.
Despite the lack of college experience on the team, with the majority of players being freshman, Hill was pleased with the first half performance on the season.
The second half of the season was a different story.
Hill said a big emphasis for his program falls on pitching and defense. Having only one returning pitcher, junior Chelsey Chamberlain, Hill knew it would be a battle on the mound and tried to coach accordingly with the talent on the team.
“There were a number of players that were down due to injuries during the second half of conference, which added to our struggle,” Hill said.
According to Hill, the next challenge for the freshman coming into a college program is not only the pace of the game, but the number of games played. In high school there is less of a time commitment and a smaller game schedule whereas in college there are more games and a bigger commitment is needed.
In terms of coaching, Hill said that he and his staff should have done a better job responding to the downfall in the second half of the season.
“Ultimately, the struggle of the rest of the reason lies with coaching. I feel that I didn’t do my job as well as I should have and my next step is to reexamine my coaching methods for the program,” said Hill.
Looking ahead to next season, Hill said he is working on recruiting more girls into the program. As of right now, Hill said he has two junior college players and one transfer on the radar for next season to bring more depth to the team.
The Boxers had two athletes this season that broke five school records. Center fielder, Stephanie Vanoudenhagen broke three different records with 57 hits, 53 runs and 38 stolen bases this past season while pitcher Chelsey Chamberlain broke two records with 63 runs batted in and 13 homeruns in the 2011 season.Hil
Leave a Reply