Everyone knows about the varsity sports on campus, but it is the clubs sports teams that offer the average MSU students their chance to shine.
The MSU Club Softball team is a competitive team that plays year round during the fall and spring semesters.
Their first season as a competitive team was in 2007, and the 2010 season was the club’s first as a member of the National Club Softball Association.
The team plays against all other Division I schools in the Big Ten, including University of Michigan, Ohio State, Illinois and Bowling Green among others.
Communications senior Abby Robinson said while club softball has its differences from varsity softball, the intensity and passion for the game still remains the same.
“There’s not really a big audience for us. ... As far as being different from being on a varsity team, it’s a little bit less of a commitment and it’s not as intense,” Robinson said. “All of us were varsity athletes in high school and either were recruited to smaller schools or things like that but chose Michigan State anyways. ... We just wanted to continue our careers and keep playing the game that we love.”
Humanities pre-law junior and team pitcher Hannah Cone said the team’s chemistry is great, which helps them through the ups and downs of a competitive sports season.
“Definitely, we have a really good team chemistry this year,” Cone said. “That helps, because whenever things start going bad, everyone picks each other up which helps a lot, and then our offense has been really good too. We have a lot of team dinners and team parties outside of this — through all of that we’ve become really close.”
Along with the team chemistry, the makeup of talent plays a big role in their success.
Economics junior and club president Erin Donnarumma has high expectations for this year’s team, and believes that they have the talent to match, or even improve, on past successes.
“Absolutely (our expectations are) to go back to the World Series,” Donnarumma said. “My freshman year, I came in and our team had gone to the World Series the year before, and my freshman year we made it back to the World Series. I think we ended at the World Series placed either 8th or 9th in the nation. To be able to be in that top tier of teams, it’s definitely an expectation and we all expect to end up in Columbus, Georgia for the World Series by the end of the season.”
Interior design junior Kendal Bayer also believes this season will be one to remember
“I think this year we have a lot more going for us,” Bayer said. “This fall season we did pretty well, so we have a chance to either tie (for) 1st in the division or (be) second. (The) chances of us going to regionals are really good right now, and they’re already better than last year.”
Head coach Bob Every has high expectations for the team, and believes the team can go deep this year in their hunt for a World Series championship.
“We’re right in the hunt,” Every said. “If we do our job through the winter and practice the way that we’ve been practicing, given the talent that we have, and what we’ve done this fall, we should win (games). If we do that, we can do no less than a tie for the conference championship or a second place finish, outright, which will then qualify us for the National Regional Tournament, and then depending on how we do there, that will qualify us for that 12-person team at the World Series.”
Assistant coach Jeff Kegler believes that the team’s development has been the key to success.
“Without question, the growth and development of this team (has been crucial),” Kegler said. “I actually just did a stat comparison today between where we were at in the spring, and the biggest thing was the hitting. Coach Every is just a huge proponent of strong hitters and powerful hitters. Without question our power numbers are better, we’ve increased our batting average by about 60 points over what we did last year. Our pitching has dramatically increased, and we’re just in a good spot right now.”
