UMPI Softball Sets Sights On Playoff Glory This Season

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine (WAGM) - The University of Maine Presque isle Softball team is spending the spring break in South Carolina. The Owls hope the trip will help prepare them for another trip to the North Atlantic Conference playoffs. Last year the Owls had a disappointing season and Jonathon Eigenmann tells us the team is ready to turn last years disappointment into a bid for a playoff spot this season.

Alissa Edwards:” Definitely a lot different then last year, we brought in quite a few new girls this year so, some new faces and you know we really been working a lot on our culture and just learning about overall softball IQ”.

Emily Blauvelt:” Our goal this year as a team is, we wanna have game to game mentality , so we wanna take one game, and if it doesn’t go well or it does go well, we wanna get rid of that for the next game and start over”.

The UMPI Softball Team step onto the diamond with renewed hopes for 2023. and while the team would love to put last seasons struggles behind them, there are things to take away from it.

Alissa Edwards:” I think a big thing last season was learning really how to work together as a unit, as one team, and just really working on the bonding and the culture of the team and so that’s one thing that the girls have gone crazy about this year. They’ve been super tight and you know they’ve been dedicated to learning and to working and to just being better everyday”.

The Owls will field a much younger team this year with 6 of their 14 players being freshman, . One strength this team can lean on when needed is their ability to play multiple positions on the field.

Zoe Aylward-Frank:” We have a lot of girls that can play any position, very flexible team we have here this year. All our girls are very confident in different positions, we have a smaller team this year as well. So really being able to have different rotations, being able to play different positions, you know that’s you know what makes us different and what makes us strong as well”.

The Owls will be very busy in South Carolina, by March 17th, playing 10 games in six days. With a smaller roster, one of the most important items will be conserving energy.

Zoe Aylward-Frank: Conserving energy with our numbers, making sure we have; recovery for us this year is huge. we have alot of ; we work with our athletic trainers on a daily basis, so making sure recovery’s in there, time-management, and then conserving energy i would say would be the biggest things”.

Early on, the players admit they may be a little rusty, but it won’t take long to get back to form.

Dalaney Anfinson:” We have been in the gym for this whole like seven week process but also, we’ve all played our whole lives. Like yeah it might be a little rusty like the first like practice we have on dirt but i think once we get on dirt, it will be like muscle-memory, will be ready to go, girls are gonna; feel like were running a little excited to see dirt and grass and pop-flys so, feel like that will help us get off our nerves from going from the gym floor to the grass and dirt”.

The Owls will spend most of the season on the road before ending on a 8 game home stand at the end of April.

Jonathon Eigenmann, newssource sports.

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