The Western Nebraska Community College softball team's venture for a second straight Region IX title will begin Thursday as the Cougars head to Texas for six games.
WNCC, which finished last season with a 56-14 record and a trip to the national tournament, open the season with a doubleheader against Frank Phillips Thursday followed by a four-game series with Western Texas College on Friday and Saturday.
WNCC coach Maria Winn-Ratliff, who is in her 12th year, said this team is ready to go despite the team not getting too many chances to practice outdoors.
"The team will be fairly young in regards to freshmen," Winn-Ratliff said. "We do return some key players, but I think most of the faces that you will see on the field will be new."
Winn-Ratliff knows they will be facing good competition this weekend, but she is looking at this weekend as a chance to get in some games before they open the conference season the last of February.
"Frank is always scrappy. We play them every year and typically the first weekend. They will have four games under their belt," she said. "Western Texas went out and faced Temple, the pre-season number one team and lost both games to them but played well. They faced McCook and split with them. They have a pitcher out of Canada that we really liked.
"The big thing for us is we really haven't been outside. We did spend a couple days over in Gering at the softball fields. We got a little bit of fresh air with a chance to be outside, but I think it will take a little bit to really get the dirt under our feet. The weather will be sunny down there in the high 60s and 70s which will feel 90 to us.
"We are going to use this weekend to get some of the jitters out to evaluate who will be in our starting lineup before in two weeks we go and face Otero and start conference play and to be where we need to be to compete in the region."
WNCC has talent with seven sophomores back from a year ago, including the top two pitchers in Andy Hancock of Riverdale, Utah, and Whitney Fields of Grantsville, Utah.
Hancock and Fields will likely be carrying the load once again this season. A year ago, Fields went 10-4 in the circle with 82 strikeouts and an ERA of .307. Fields also batted .355 with 36 RBIs and eight home runs. Hancock finished last season with a 21-2 record with 98 strike outs and an ERA of 1.96.
Also seeing time in the circle will be sophomore Christian Bobian, who pitched some in high school, while freshman Peyten Davies, a 5-foot-10 pitcher from West Jordan, Utah, will also see pitching duties.
"We are fortunate that Andy and Whitney are back," Winn-Ratliff said. "Christian has done a really great job throwing a couple days in the week to keep her body in shape. She threw in high school. Peyton Davies won a state championship as a sophomore in Utah. We have four young women that can definitely give us opportunity in the circle. But the bulk of the load we are going to put on Whitney and Andy's shoulders, where day in and day out they will give us opportunities to win."
Besides Fields, Hancock, and Bobian, also returning from a year ago are Courtney Medina of Ft. Collins, Colorado, Kenzie Sawyer of Cedar City, Utah, Desirae Visser of Thornton, Colorado, and Jade Morton of Henderson, Colorado.
Sawyer returns as the big hitter, batting .436 a year ago with 24 home runs and 20 doubles. Sawyer also had 67 RBIs and 70 runs scored.
Winn-Ratliff said she really doesn't know what to expect for offense this season because this team is unique with speed, power, and the ability to use the short game.
"This group is unique. They are resilient and you will see different things on different days," she said. "We have quite a bit of speed depending on the situations we will be able to utilize the short game and we have some kids with quite a bit of power. In all honestly, anyone in our lineup could hit the ball out. But I don't know if that is our expectation for them to do day in and day out. The big focus is just trying to get on base and good things can happen when we can put runners on base where we can give ourselves options to steal, options hit and run, fake bunt."
As much as everyone likes offense, Winn-Ratliff said it is defense is what wins games. And she is hoping that they can become defensively solid like in the past.
"If you watched the football game Sunday, there wasn't a whole lot of offense and defense wins championships," she said. "We have to be able to play good defense and get good pitching and get timely hitting.
Besides the seven returners, Winn-Ratliff has some talented newcomers that should see time in the lineup in one fashion. The freshmen include Cassie Jones and Haille Weber of Longmont, Colorado; Emily Selby of Colorado Springs, Colorado; Jasmine Wessel of Thornton, Colorado; Shelby Martinez of Pueblo, Colorado; Celyn Whitt of Broomfield, Colorado; Brittany Bigge of Las Vegas, Nevada; Lauren Oxford of Las Vegas, Nevada; and Peyten Davies of West Jordan, Utah.
After this weekend's six games, the Cougars will have a week off before they will begin conference play against Otero Junior College on Feb. 27 and 28 in La Junta, Colorado. The Cougar's first home games are slated for March 11 and 12 against Western Texas.