Softball Opens Year at Leadoff Classic

Softball | 2/5/2015 3:57:00 PM

TUCSON, Ari. – No. 4 Southeastern will open the 2015 season with a trip to the NFCA Division II Leadoff Classic where it will look to defend its 2013 title as it opens play in the three-day event on Feb. 6 at 4:30 p.m. against Colorado Mesa.
 
The tournament will continue through Feb. 8, with pool play slated for Friday and half of Saturday before the teams are separated into brackets for three games over Saturday afternoon and Sunday.
 
The Savage Storm made waves early in the 2013 season when they entered the Leadoff Classic as an unranked team, topping five ranked teams and a pair of top-10 teams en route to six-straight wins and a Gold Bracket Championship, ultimately propelling that team to a No. 2 national ranking that season.
 
This year's club is coming off its own improbable run after finishing third in the NCAA National Finals.
 
SE advanced to a Central Sub-Regional as a seven seed and made the long trip to Mankato, Minn., where it won, advancing to the Super-Regional where it swept a series from Augustana to make the program's first ever NCAA National Finals appearance.
 
The Storm open the 2015 season with the same national ranking it finished the 2014 season with as the No. 4 team in the nation in the NFCA Preseason Poll.
 
SE posted a 45-20 record in 2014 and won the Great American Conference regular season championship.
 
The Storm will also enter the year as the favorite to win the GAC Championship after topping the league's preseason poll.
 
The team returns its top four hitters including All-American and GAC Player of the Year Jessica Simmons who hit .413 and stole a league-best 38 bases.
 
She is joined by Laramie Beal, Sydney Kramer and Haley Strawn, all of whom hit over .350 for the season.
 
In all, Southeastern returns seven position players who started at least half the team's games last year.
 
The Storm will have to replace GAC Pitcher of the Year Mindy McElroy who graduated, but the staff does return Jacee Bennett who was 8-5 with a team-best 83 strikeouts in 89.0 innings pitched.
 
SE will also welcome five newcomers to the roster, including four freshmen. 
 
The team's first opponent is Colorado Mesa who is the defending Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference champion, entering the 2015 season picked to finish tied for third in the league.
 
They are paced by the league's Preseason Player of the Year in Makayla Kovac who batted .497 last season and was a second team All-American.
 
The Storm will then face Fort Lewis, also out of the RMAC, who is picked to finish seventh in the league after going 26-29 in 2014 with a 19-19 conference record.
 
SE will complete the pool play portion of the schedule with a matchup against Regis on Saturday morning.
 
The Pride will make the trip to Tucson from Massachusetts and are coming off an 11-20 season.
 
SE will then enter pool play with opponents to be determined.