Meshing two Marinette & Oconto Conference high schools for a co-op girls softball program can be a challenge.
For Gillett, it was about survival.
For Suring, it was a chance to play ball.
Gillett, which finished 5-8 (5-7 M&O) last year with 13 players, lost four seniors to graduation: Kara Brennan, Karli Woodke, Rachel Ransom and Ella Miller.
The arrival of five Suring students helped increased turnout this spring to 17.
“Last year was not the best season, and now that we have Suring, we have a better chance to win,” said junior pitcher Jessica Anderson, who is among the team’s eight returning letter-winners. “We want to win this year.”
Anderson, a second-team all-conference honoree last year, will be counted on to lead the new squad, named the Hornets, on the mound, according to first-year coach Joe Lojsperger.
Anderson had a productive sophomore season, logging 84 strikeouts and 25 walks in 72 1/3 innings. She fanned 13 batters in a nine-inning extra inning contest against Niagara and followed up with an 11-strikeout performance in five innings at Lena/St. Thomas Aquinas.
Lojsperger plans to have freshman Willow Pecha start when Anderson doesn’t.
The other letter-winners include juniors Kayla DeBauch, Brittany Fetterly and Mackenzie Simpson.
DeBauch will start the season at catcher. She batted .323 with nine runs scored.
Fetterly, who was a conference honorable mention her freshman year, will look to improve upon her .258 batting average. She scored seven runs last year.
Simpson will move from third base to first this year. She hit .333, scored nine runs and drove in four last year.
Additionally, 2014 conference honorable mention Myranda Pratsch will return for her sophomore season after batting .353 with eight runs scored and three RBIs. Other returning letter winners are senior Miranda Ness and juniors Maya Breed and Tyra Tholl.
Breed missed her entire sophomore season due to a broken thumb suffered during last year’s basketball season, and will move from catcher to second base.
Entering the fray from Suring will be senior Mikaela Reed, sophomores Rachel Ritter and Greta Sleeter, and freshmen Jada Vandevelde and Nikki Niemann.
“This is the first time (playing softball) since the eighth grade and it is a good opportunity for me, and I am glad to play with the other girls,” Reed said. “My learning curve has been pretty steep, but it is worth it.”
Lojsperberger has been impressed by the new additions.
“They are all great at athletics, and that helps,” he said. “They are figuring things out pretty quick and are coming together.”
Lojsperberger believes the team will be successful this season.
“Every team is always building,” he said. “We think we have a good core group that has been here. We have some good energy, and I expect to win.”
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