By Dave Melton, For The Herald Bulletin
ANDERSON — Two weeks ago, when the Anderson University women’s basketball team was eliminated from the HCAC Tournament, most of the players hung up their jerseys and began preparing for the offseason.
But not junior Ellen Thompson and freshman Amy Wuestefeld. Instead, they picked up their cleats in anticipation of this year’s season of AU softball.
“I’ve been busy before, and I’m busy now,” said Wuestefeld, a three-sport athlete in high school. “There’s a lot more time put in now than in high school, and it’s a lot more physically demanding, but it’s still the same pattern.”
“I definitely have had to manage my time better in college,” said Thompson. “The workload and the time ... in high school, there wasn’t as much homework and studying that needed to be done.”
Both athletes are going to be part of a youth movement on this year’s softball team, which features a roster full of players in their first or second year of college softball.
“We’ll be young,” said AU head coach Tony Holloway. “As far as eligibility goes, we don’t have a single junior or senior on the roster. We’ll be a team that’s going to be backed by our pitching.”
The leader of that pitching staff will be sophomore Monica Crowe, who flourished in her freshman season. She posted an 11-5 record and a 2.20 ERA last year, setting school records with 116 strikeouts and holding opponents to a .189 batting average.
“In my opinion, she’s one of the top pitchers in the conference,” said Holloway. “We made it to the conference tournament last year, and a lot of that was based on the fact that she developed into our No. 1 by the end of the year.”
AU went 23-17 last season, and Crowe said the Ravens will be looking to improve on that mark in 2010.
“I think we’re expecting to win this year,” she said. “We’ve put a lot more effort into preseason conditioning. We’re trying to be an endurance team. Last year, the last two innings weren’t as good as the first five. We’ve put more emphasis on finishing games, which means you have to be stronger mentally and physically.”
Crowe is not going to be the only arm that the Ravens rely on this year, either.
“Our staff has been greatly improved with the addition of freshman Devin Moorman,” said Holloway. “She probably gives us a better one-two combination than we’ve had here in a long time.”
On offense, the Ravens return two of their top hitters in sophomores Lys Hess (.356, 17 RBIs in 2010) and Megan Kruse (.225, 16 runs, 13 RBIs).
The Ravens will open their season this weekend when they head to Florida, during the school’s spring break, for 12 games in eight days.
“Being able to get out into some warm weather gives us an opportunity to prepare for the conference run,” said Holloway. “We get 12 games in and won’t have to worry about freezing temperatures. We’ll come back here and, hopefully, have all the bugs worked out.”
“It’s a jump-start for the season,” said Crowe. “You get a lot of experience right away. The freshmen can get used to what we do ... it’ll be really good for our team to play together a lot.”
After the trip to Florida, the Ravens will play in their home opener March 24 against Ohio Northern.
