Steven Murillo
Staff Writer
ISU’s women’s softball team has been preparing and anticipating to blaze their way into the NCAA regional tournament this spring season.
With some new recruits and returning conference MVP-caliber seniors the team is poised for a big season.
Last year Hailey Breakwell had an impressive 40 RBI’s with a .367 batting average while Vicky Galasso also had 20 home runs.
Some might say that ISU is at a disadvantage in a sport that thrives during seasons without snow, but ISU’s coaches have devised ways to practice and continue developing their athletes throughout the tough Idaho winter.
Head Coach Julie Wright has made her goal clear.
“We want to get to regionals and burst onto the national scene,” said Wright to ISU Sports Information. “That’s what these seniors are seeking.”
Breakwell explained, “In fall our hours change after season, but while the turf is still down in Holt Arena we can work defense in there and we have a cage in there for hitting. We practice defense in Reed Gym at 6 a.m. right now before spring season.”
Wright wants to make sure all her scholarship players earn their keep with this kind of training schedule.
Coach Wright has learned from some of the best coaches in the business including Tim Walton
of the Florida Gators and Patty Gasso of the Oklahoma Sooners.
In the midst of the offseason is when the real fun in the weight room begins.
The team has a responsibility to “lift 3 times a week,” according to Breakwell.
Their regimen looks like something out of an Olympic training camp as they perform lifts such as hang cleans and heavy squats with plenty of professional style dynamic exercises thrown in.
Their first game in their first tournament of the season is against the renowned UCLA Bruins.
Jessica Moore has plenty of experience picking apart the lineups of the team from her playing time in the Pac-12 and thus will be a valuable asset as Assistant Coach to Idaho State this year.
Especially with teams like University of Kansas, University of Louisiana Lafayette and UNLV
Coach Wright said that Moore is still training herself for games with team USA and she has been providing a bright example to the ISU pitchers.
“They’re in year two with [Moore,]” said Wright to ISU Sports Information. “The way she teaches and presents herself on the mound as an example is rubbing off on our bullpen and I’m really liking what I’m seeing on the mound right now.”
Coach Wright has also brought in some new talent to deepen the roster.
Ashlyn Ames from Las Vegas, Nevada; Kristen Williams from Temecula, California; and Sahalee Doe from Eugene, Oregon and the daughter of an Alumni player from the first softball generation at ISU are among that new talent.
The team will also feature a new but experienced transfer pitcher from the University of California.
The Bengals have a nemesis opponent to look forward to later in their season with the Southern Utah University Thunderbirds, who took away the Bengals’ ticket to the NCAA regional tournament last year by beating them in the conference tournament championship game.
The Bengals were the regular season conference champions but the Thunderbirds came in to win a bid to the tournament.
“SUU will be one of the top teams in the conference to beat once again,” said Breakwell, whose sentiments were echoed by Wright.
SUU acquired a new coach as of this year in Tom Gray. Gray was the former assistant coach at Oklahoma State.
The team has also become sponsored by Mizuno since their NCAA regional tournament appearance last year.
