By Ann Brunn
Staff Writer
Coming off a 33-8 season that included a New Jersey Athletic Conference championship title, the softball team is focused and ready for the 2020 season.
When asked what morale is like in the clubhouse heading into this season, junior pitcher Alanna Namit said that the team is, “extremely excited for everything that is to come.”
She emphasized how important it was to forget all what happened last year in order to be ready for what this season has in store.
The Lions only have three seniors on their active roster, and the team has continued to build on their successes from past seasons, according to Namit.
“The seniors will always be a crucial part of our successes,” she said, “they have helped the junior class for three years to become strong upcoming leaders amongst them.”
Namit was the 2019 NJAC Pitcher of the Year, but when asked about this achievement and work she put in during the off-season, she said that the team’s success “is not going to be due to one player, rather an entire team working together to do their part.”
One integral part of the team that she referenced was the bullpen. Namit said that it has an equal ratio of returning pitchers to first-year pitchers. She hopes that with this feature each pitcher will be able to execute their jobs on the mound while motivating each other to do their best.
The Lions’ first game at Dr. June Walker Field on campus will be on Feb. 29, where they will face Fairleigh Dickinson University-Florham at 11 a.m. before playing New York University later that afternoon, completing a double-header. During the upcoming spring break, the team will travel to Florida, where they will participate in the 2020 Spring Games. They will play 12 games over the span of seven days against colleges from all across the country.
