Spring is often a time for new beginnings. For Shippensburg University’s 2016 softball team, this definitely holds true.

Last season, the Raiders softball team went 17-18 and finished with a 12-16 PSAC record. The Raiders were voted third in the Eastern Division of the PSAC Preseason Coaches’ Poll, headed into 2016.

This season, the SU softball team has undergone a lot of changes — the softball roster features just four upperclassmen. SU’s softball team has nine freshmen on the roster going into the season.

With such a young roster, the Raiders have been working extremely hard to prepare themselves for the upcoming season.

“The biggest thing is that we are really young. We lost a lot of seniors last year so we have a lot of spots to fill,” senior team captain Briana Giovenco said.

“We have been trying to figure out where to put people even if they don’t play there, to see who is excelling where and just figure out the best field formation,” Giovenco said.

“We have been working really hard defensively and offensively, we are really young. We only have four upperclassmen, two seniors and two juniors. The other 16 athletes are freshmen and sophomores,” coach Bob Brookens said.

‘We’re just trying to get them totally prepared for the collegiate softball that they are going to see. No matter how much softball they played before they got to college it’s just totally different. We’re just trying to get a little bit of maturity before we start,” Brookens said.

The weather has been a big challenge to the softball team in trying to prepare for this season. After the winter break, the team started to prepare for the upcoming season, but with heavy snowfall preventing the team from getting out on the field, the team has faced adversity.

“The big snowstorm didn’t help. It was starting to look really nice so we were hoping to get out on the field. We usually try to get out if its 40 or above, but the snow definitely set us back awhile. We were able to get out on the turf for a few hours, but usually we are on the field a handful of times before we actually start to play,” Giovenco said.

“It started out pretty nice. It wasn’t too bad toward the beginning of January when we started. We actually got a chance to go outside the very first weekend that they came back from winter break but then that big snowstorm hit and pushed us inside the gym here permanently and it’s been difficult trying to practice in a small gymnasium,” Brookens said.

“I think it hurts our outfielders the most because we don’t have any place big enough to hit fly balls, but other than the outfield it’s not too bad. Our gym is big enough to do our complete infield, and we can do a lot of our hitting in here also,” Brookens said.

The team returns two major contributors in senior team captainsGiovenco and Taylor Patillo.

Patillo led the team with a .352 batting average last season. She also led the team with 38 hits, and registered eight multi-hit games for the Raiders in 2015. Patillo started every game for the Raiders last season. Giovenco led the Raiders with 25 RBIs last season, including seven games with two or more RBIs. Giovenco also hit five home runs last spring.

The team will also look to rely on its pitching staff this season. The roster features five pitchers, who will be working extremely hard to set the table for the Raiders.

“We focused this year more on our pitching staff. We feel like we have an outstanding pitching staff this year, which in the game of softball that’s pretty much where you have to start. You have to have strong pitching to keep the other team down a little bit run wise, and produce some runs, but I think our pitching staff is what we focused on mainly this year and they are going to be very productive,” Brookens said.

The team will hit the road to start its season on Feb. 19. Being on the road is something that the Raiders will have to become accustomed to, since they will be playing in five different states over the course of the season.

“Traveling to me is fun. I sleep most of the time. It is a little stressful because you have to adapt academically. For instance, we leave Wednesday for a tournament that is only supposed to be Saturday and Sunday so a lot of girls have to do work on the bus. Other than that, it is fun. We bond, we sing songs, and we do challenges, dance offs, stuff like that. It’s a form of team bonding and I look at it like that,” Giovenco said.

“Obviously being a school in the northeast, we have to travel. We have to go south early or we won’t get a chance to play at all. Last year I know we lost 21 games due to cancellation because of the weather, and that hurt us dramatically,” Brookens said.

“This year I actually put together probably the toughest schedule we have had in the last four or five years, but I did it on purpose to try and get our young players educated and playing well before we start the conference here. We are very excited about playing in a little bit warmer weather and going to some of the other states. I know they will be ready when the time comes,” Brookens said.

The Raiders will open the 2016 season Feb. 19 in the Snowbird Softball Freeze Out. The Softball Freeze Out will take place in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

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