It seems like the expectations are set high every preseason for the Massachusetts softball team.
This year is no different for UMass (4-7) and its mindset is solidified on winning the Atlantic 10 for the regular season.
“We are still trying to figure out a couple things,” UMass coach Kristi Stefanoni said. “I think again, we are in a young season and we are trying to figure out really who we are. We know what we want, we know what our goals are, we know what our end goal is so again we just need to play more softball.”
The Minutewomen head into the season dealing with the aftermath of losing six seniors who played major roles on last year’s team. In non-conference play so far, the Minutewomen have seen multiple players step up into those roles. Two of those players are Caroline Videtto and Amy Smith who are having strong campaigns with the season still young.
Videtto is batting .333 at the plate with a home run to boot along with nine RBI in non-conference play. Smith is batting .323 and is ready for her role to be increased. The junior hit .143 last season after only getting seven hits during the year.
“I am really excited for this team,” Smith said. “Last weekend was a big weekend for us, a lot of really good things are heading in the right direction for all of us. Pitchers are starting to work a lot together, hitters are starting to string things together, so I am super excited.”
To start the season, the Minutewomen have faced a demanding and tough non-conference schedule. The Minutewomen are coming off of a tournament down in Florida where they squared off against Wisconsin, Iowa State, and host USF. They lost four out of five games down in Florida against competition on the bubble of potentially making the NCAA tournament at the end of the season. The one victory was a commanding win for UMass, as the team mercy ruled USF 14-5 in six innings and relied on the hitting of Kendra Allen who finished 2-of-3 at the plate and smashed a home run as well. Along with Allen, who succeeded at the plate, Kristina Day also had herself a three-hit game along with an RBI as well.
It was a doubleheader for the Minutewomen on Saturday. Prior to their dominant win over USF in the second game of the day, they matched up against Iowa State where it was close up until the bottom of the sixth when Iowa State plated two runs to take the lead. Kiara Oliver stepped up big for the Minutewomen, pitching six innings of four-hit ball and struck out eight as well. UMass will rely heavily on Oliver’s arm and likewise with senior Quinn Breidenbach who is forming into a leader for this young group.
Breidenbach is coming off a successful 2019 season that saw the senior post a 3.36 ERA and go 12-5 on the mound. UMass will need the success of Breidenbach and Oliver on the mound in order to compete in the A-10.
“I think this is the first year everybody’s focus has been really to compete,” Breidenbach said. “I feel like overall our defense is really solid and we are getting along really well and not that we haven’t in the past, but I just think things are starting to click and we are relaxing a lot more. I don’t think we are stressing ourselves out as much and we are excited to get the season rolling.”
During the offseason, Breidenbach took time to work on a few things to improve her pitching.
“I have been working a lot on my rise ball,” Breidenbach said. “I want to integrate that pitch a lot more into my at-bats that I am throwing, and also my changeup keeping a lot of players off balance because I have been here for four years and they have seen what I have thrown. Being able to throw those innings and be able to keep them off balance.”
The Minutewomen head down to Virginia for another non-conference weekend tournament as first pitch is scheduled for 11 a.m. against Binghamton on Friday.
Frederick Hanna III can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @FrederickHIII
