Season Preview: New-look Polar Bears hope for similar results as Softball team kicks off 2013 campaign
By Tim Glon
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ADA — The Ohio Northern softball team welcomes back 13 letterwinners, four position players and two pitchers from last year's squad that went 31-14, advanced to the NCAA III World Series and won the Ohio Athletic Conference regular season title.
The Polar Bears, under third-year head coach Kim Burke, return the entire outfield, its top two pitchers and a three-year starter at shortstop in 2013.
Northern will be gunning for its fifth consecutive OAC Regular Season title and its sixth in the last seven years.
ONU suffered heavy losses to graduation, as two All-Americans and two All-Region honorees graduated after combining for 851 base hits, 111 home runs and 645 RBI.
It will be a different team with a different style this spring.
But the goals will remain the same: win the OAC Regular Season and Tournament titles and get back to the NCAA III World Series.
"We are excited about the upcoming season," Burke said. "We lost quite a bit of offensive firepower and we expect to be a different team this year. Our talent level is still very good and we have talented players that have been waiting their turns to get into the starting lineup.
"The ladies have been working extremely hard during the offseason and I am eager to see what they can do when they get out onto the field."
Senior Ashley Sujkowski is back for her third season as the starting shortstop and is one of four returning All-Conference honorees on the roster.
Sujkowski has started the last 86 games at short and is a career .372 batter with six home runs and 60 RBI to her credit in 107 career games.
Senior All-OAC Abbey Bensing and senior Katy Newman are back in the circle and will join freshmen Jessica Camper and Alex Manno to form a deep and talented pitching staff.
Bensing was named Second Team All-OAC last season after going 12-7 with a 2.74 ERA and 88 strikeouts in 200.1 innings.
Newman was 10-5 with a 2.63 ERA and 52 Ks in 2012.
The Polar Bears' outfield is full of talented returners, with junior All-Conference and All-Region honoree Christin Miller, sophomore All-OAC award winner Kelly Sheridan, senior Michelle Sweet, junior Colleen Baliga and sophomores Jamie Westenkirchner and Adriana Sikora all returning.
Miller set a school record with 80 hits last year and boasted a .449 batting average and Sheridan was the OAC Rookie of the Year after batting .370 with five home runs and 44 RBI.
All six players have starting experience and some of them may move to the infield to compete for the vacancies there.
The infield will feature newcomers short on experience but heavy on talent.
The first base job is shaping up to be a battle between Westinkirchner and freshman Anne Dreher.
Junior Carly McKenzie, sophomore Taylor Manahan and freshman Lindsay Simmons appear to be in the running for the starting job at second base.
Third base is shaping up to be a battle between Baliga, Dreher and sophomore Jodi Otte.
Behind the plate, the competition for the starting position looks to be between junior Bree Hiteshew and freshmen Amanda Lahti and Tessa Topp.
"Our expectations are very high this year," Burke said. "But we will be playing a much different style of ball that our fans and opponents are used to. We should be an exciting team and have tremendous potential."