Lucas Gebhart

Sports Editor

The ISU softball team has high expectations for the 2016 season. Coming off of its third consecutive Big Sky Conference regular season championship, the Bengals will look to four-peat and host the Big Sky Conference tournament for the fourth straight season.

ISU was picked to finish second in the conference behind only Weber State in the preseason coaches poll.

ISU finished the 2015 season with a 34-18 overall record and 17-4 record in conference play. Eight players from last year’s squad earned All-Big Sky Conference honors and the Bengals will return six of them.

Kacie Burnett, Ashlyn Ames, Sophie Slagle, Maddy Hickman, Sarah Hayes and Micheala Taylor.

Despite hosting the tournament the last three seasons, the Bengals have failed to win the tournament. This year, new head coach Candi Letts will look to change that.

Letts brings a different coaching style to ISU, one that the players enjoy more than the Julie Wright style.

The players are buying into the new coaching style and believe it will change how the team plays in the postseason.

“She is more relaxed and wants us to have more fun so we aren’t stressing out as much,” said second baseman Micheala “Kansas” Taylor. “It is just going to be a routine. We know what we have to do and we aren’t going to stress out about it. She lets us figure it out on our own so we are not clueless on the field.”

“There is still discipline but there is a different approach and it is helpful because it is more guiding,” added senior outfielder Katelyn Marquez. “She wants us to be independent as a player and as a person but she will step in when she needs to.”

Under Wright, the Bengals were a force to be reckoned with in the regular season, but failed to have that same mentality in postseason play.

The ultimate goal for this year’s team is to make it to the regional tournament. However, that cannot happen unless ISU wins the conference tournament, which according to Taylor, “Will happen.”   

The motto this year is to finish. 

“We want to peak during the tournament,” Marquez said. “We don’t want to press on the accelerator too fast and run out of energy. We want to focus on the postseason and win it all. We all have the same mentality, we want to win but we are getting used to a different coaching style. It is a nice change and she is very willing to work with us. That is the best part about this new coaching style.”

“It is all about putting all of the puzzle pieces together,” Taylor said.

Regionals is a realistic goal for ISU this season. The team returns seven starters including a sure-handed Maddie Hickman at first base, who Letts said has the best glove that she has ever seen at that position.

“There are no worries when that ball is thrown to her. She has picked up her game quite a bit from the fall on,” Letts said.

Hickman started all 52 games last season at first base and made everybody in the infield better.

“Defense wins championships,” Taylor said. “I have confidence in her and I know that if I get one up the middle I can just chuck it over there and not have to worry about it.” 

I have always worked really hard to be the best first baseman I could be,” explained Hickman. “Everybody else works really hard in the field so if I can help them out and finish the play, then I am doing the best job I can.”

Shortstop is a position that is still up in the air and will most likely see rotation between young infielders who will look to players like Taylor for advice. 

Marquez will be starting in her fourth consecutive season in center field. However, unlike previous seasons, Marquez is the leader. With freshmen Ashley Morris in right field, Marquez will lead a Bengal outfield.   

“I think I have had to be more of a mentor, especially this year with a new freshman in right field,” Marquez said. “Last year we had Gabby Lopez who we look to for advice and now people are coming to me and I am honored that people would do that.” 

With Kacie Burnett in left, who was first team all-conference as she hit .459 last season, Marquez’s senior leadership in center and freshmen Ashley Morris in right, who Letts is very excited about, the Bengal outfield looks to be one of the best in the conference. 

“Ashley Morris is swinging the bat well,” Letts said. “We just have a lot of versatility and speed on this team.”

Pitching will be the key for the Bengals in the 2016 season, especially in the postseason.

Led by Sophie Slagle, the reigning Big Sky Newcomer of the Year and sophomore Ashley Ames who was named to first team all-conference last season, the Bengals will look to shut down opposing lineups in both regular and postseason play.

“I can’t slow down and accept average,” Slagle said. “Try to get better every day.”

“We expect a lot from her and I think she expects a lot from herself,” Letts said, regarding her senior pitcher. 

The Bengals open play in Phoenix, Arizona where they will play in the Grand Canyon Tournament on Feb. 12.