February 4, 2016

DWU Softball opens season Friday at St. Cloud State

MITCHELL, S.D. – The 2016 Dakota Wesleyan University softball team will look to rely on its youth to provide depth this spring and gain respect in the Great Plains Athletic Conference, after being picked to finish 11th in the league in the preseason.

Game 1

Dakota Wesleyan

0-1

St. Cloud St.

1-0

Final

Dakota Wesleyan

St. Cloud St.

MITCHELL, S.D. – The 2016 Dakota Wesleyan University softball team will look to rely on its youth to provide depth this spring and gain respect in the Great Plains Athletic Conference, after being picked to finish 11^th in the league in the preseason.

Fifth-year head coach Ed Kieff is back at the helm and looks to find a mix of both young and experienced talent to fill his lineup.

All-GPAC First Team selection Hailey Unger (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) is back and will assume her role behind the plate for the Tigers in her final year. Last season Unger was named a Daktronics/NAIA Scholar Athlete, while also leading the team in batting average (.372), RBI (37), and tied for first in home runs (6). The senior also set a school record for most RBIs in a season (37) and most RBI in a career (87).

Also returning for the Tigers is senior infielder Vanessa Mendez (Monterey Park, Calif.). Last year, Mendez was a GPAC Honorable Mention and a Daktronics/NAIA Scholar Athlete. Mendez finished the year with a .324 batting average and tied Unger with six homeruns.

Unger and Mendez both know that there will be a deep bench of young and talented players that will keep them in the hunt in the GPAC.

"We definitely have girls that will get on base this year," Unger said. "Even though we have a lot of young players, they are very skilled and they take a huge leadership role on our team. After spring break and getting in all of those reps, it will make a huge difference and we are going to be a team to watch out for."

Filling the rest of the lineup for the Tigers will be a mix of talented freshman and junior college transfers. Kieff signed 13 freshman and two transfers that he expects them to contribute immediately.

"The girls are coming together at the right time," Kieff said. "This is the best class I have brought in."

On the offensive side, freshman Karly Severance (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Savannah Ahumada (Turlock, Calif.) will bring a much needed power presence to the team. Last fall, DWU held a fall invitational and the Tiger offense hit 11 homeruns by 10 different players in just two days.

When the Tigers take the field, junior pitcher Lorissa Loeppky (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) and highly touted local freshman Hallie Misiaszek (Mitchell, S.D.) will toe the rubber and look to improve on the 7.39 ERA posted last spring. Newcomers Kelly Taylor (Dublin, Calif.) and Sierra Haage (Sioux Falls, S.D.) will also be seen as top candidates in the Tiger pitching rotation.

"Both (Taylor and Misiaszek) bring depth and production to our pitching staff," Kieff said. "We have one of the best pitching staffs in the conference."

The Tigers will need to replace the production of five seniors that have graduated, including their centerfielder and both middle infielders. DWU's all-time stolen-base leader Danielle Klassen graduated and left a large hole to fill at the top of the lineup in 2016.

Kieff said he scheduled the maximum amount of games this season in order to set the best lineup possible before GPAC tournament play. It will be up to Kieff and his returning assistants Jim Misiaszek and Chelsea Moody to determine what each player's role will be.

This season, the Tigers will take on a handful of NCAA Division II teams on their spring break trip to Tucson, Ariz., and NCAA Division I South Dakota State University. The path to the GPAC tournament will not be easy as the Tigers travel to St. Cloud, Minn. to take on NSIC power St. Cloud State University on Friday.

"Our goal is to win every game in the GPAC," Kieff said. "It's going to be a lot of fun to watch."

Projected Lineup:

Based on last year's statistics