5
Cottage Grove Softball
Maria Pardee (left) works on hitting with the help of Emma Fain (right).
Tori Taylor develops her pitching at a recent practice.
Team Rundown:
Team Perspective with Tori Taylor:
There is only room for improve-
ment for the Cottage Grove softball
team. After finishing 1-43 over the
last two seasons – with no wins last
year – the team is looking for a fresh
start.
“We’re trying to reevaluate
everything. We want to create a
culture around softball versus just
coming in and looking at it as an-
other sport,” said head coach Cheryl
Frieze. “We really want to develop
the whole piece of it. That way, I feel
like we can develop that and we can
make a strong statement that that’s
going to make us become more suc-
cessful all-around.”
The culture the team is looking to
build first starts with the attitudes of
the players.
“In the past year we’ve struggled
just to bring ourselves up so I’m
hoping this will be the year that we
can kind of build ourselves up more
as a team and win more games,” said
senior Kate Johns.
With 28 girls out for the team this
year, there is a sense of cautious op-
timism that they will have the ability
to make games competitive in the
upcoming season. For Frieze, she is
trying to get away from the cloud of
last season’s losses.
“It was just rough. I’m super com-
petitive so I always like to win but
sometimes the cards just don’t fall
that way and so I think this year,
all the girls are excited,” she said.
“They’re growing, they’re pushing
themselves already and I think that’s
just going to push us over. If we can
just get a few wins in and kind of
have that taste, it’s just going to push
them further.”
On her softball career at Cottage Grove:
It’s been rough but I definitely have
faith in us this year. So far the incom-
ing freshman, I see nothing but hard
work out of them and they can really
help with the team. And mentally, I
think all of us are in a better state
because last year was not good.
On the team’s mental state last season
I thought it was going to bring us
together by losing a couple of games
but it tore us apart because everyone
just got down on each other. But I
mean, we tried bringing it up but
some girls just didn’t want to.
I’d say it’s easier to bring a couple
people up then a whole team down.
Because it’s really like, if one person
is effected you can help change them
easier then you can bring everyone
else down. So as a leader, I try to do
that. So if I see someone having a
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bad game, or they didn’t catch a ball
just shake it off and do better next
time. There’s a whole season to im-
prove.
A teammate she is excited to watch this
season
Kate Johns has definitely improved
a lot. I played with her my freshman
year and she’s a rockstar and can do
anything. She’s a rockstar first base-
men. It’s really easy having her. Just
look at her and it brightens my mood
being a pitcher and just look over
and she’s smiling so I’m smiling.
On what would make a successful season
End of the day, I just don’t want
any more crying in the dugout. If
we can make it through some games,
get some wins, hey, that’s a plus. One
win, I’ll take it. Last season, didn’t
win a game but came close. We’re
that close.
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