With the first game of the season only three weeks away, the Lipscomb softball team is preparing for what has all the looks of a promising season.
The team only lost two seniors from last year and retained most of its strengths at the plate and on the mound.
“Our speed game is good, as well as having heavy hitters with the likes of Jenna Pealor and Jordan Fortel,” Lipscomb assistant Megan Rhodes-Smith said.
“And our defense is strong with players like Peyton Ward at shortstop and Hannah DeVault at second base.”
Devault was just voted the ASUN’s Preseason Defensive Player of the Year. She made only three errors in 2018 and finished the season with an ASUN-leading .983 fielding percentage.
Another advantage the team has is the depth of their bench, including of six pitchers. Coach Rhodes-Smith said it’s not typical to have that many on a roster, but that it’s a “good problem to have.”
One of those pitchers is a familiar face to Lipscomb Athletics. Chloe Rogers, a former Lipscomb volleyball player, decided to join the softball team for her fifth year playing four seasons for coach Brandon Rosenthal.
In their preseason games during this fall, the team went 8-0 against the competition, which included some fellow NCAA Division I schools.
Coach Rhodes-Smith said that “the hardest competition is ourselves” and that the toughest offense and defense the team has faced has been their own in practice.
However, she did mention that Liberty is new to the conference and will be a somewhat unknown factor and that Florida Gulf Coast has been a tough opponent in the past, with some games being decided by only one run.
The team will also be going up against last year’s NCAA National Champions in Florida State, and Coach Rhodes-Smith said they are looking forward to the challenge.
“The theme of this year is to finish,” Rhodes-Smith said. “We can win the whole thing as long as we stay focused.”
She also said the team has “something to prove” and that “they are tired of being a talented, good team” and want to become a great team.
Lipscomb’s first game is Feb. 8 against Campbell in Lake Charles, Louisiana. In fact, the first three weeks of games will be played away from Nashville as the team also heads south to Mobile, Alabama, and Tallahassee, Florida, in search of warmer weather.