Like any other team sport, softball is about a group of players working together. But only one player on the team stands on a pitching mound and has the responsibility of making the other team's hitters do what she wants them to do.
Coming into this season, head coach Terri Laux was confident in her veteran defense and offense, but had some concerns about an inexperienced pitching staff. But junior Cortney Winger, sophomore Randi Freese and freshman Amy Brownfield have shown their coach her concerns were entirely unfounded.
"Because of their inexperience, pitching was one of the facets of our game we weren't really sure about coming into the season," Laux said. "But if you look at some of the teams they've beaten, they've done a great job. They've developed confidence in themselves as well as earned the confidence of their coaches and teammates."
Samantha Bushy graduated and junior Marcy Mobley transferred to Eastern Michigan after the 2001 season, taking with them a solid one-two punch in the Cardinals' pitching staff. But this year's softball team has developed a capable duo of its own in Freese and Winger.
Freese has become the unofficial staff ace, winning Mid-American Conference Pitcher of the Week honors in March after her performance at the Florida State Invitational. She picked up two wins, including a complete game victory against then-No. 8 Michigan, and two saves in the tournament to guide the Cardinals into the semifinals, where they lost to then-No. 4 Nebraska.
The sophomore southpaw, however, said the mantle of staff ace means less than her role in an overall successful pitching staff.
"It means nothing," Freese said. "Together, we're all very strong. We're splitting up a lot of games and each one of us is effective in different ways. We're a really diverse staff."
Freese isn't the only Cardinal to garner conference accolades this season. After her performance in Florida, Freese was struck by a line drive in a game against Auburn and was sidelined. In stepped Winger, who took the mound in the Indiana Invitational and won three straight games, earning MAC West Division Pitcher of the Week honors.
As the veteran member of the pitching staff, Winger was hoping her years in the program would be her biggest asset prior to the season.
"I'm the oldest person on the pitching staff, so I kind of felt like I should be the leader," she said. "But none of us had much experience at all and I thought things would be divided pretty equally among us. I feel much more confident now because I have a lot more innings under my belt."
Now that she has proven herself to her coaches and teammates, Winger hopes she continues to pile up innings, something Brownfield aspires to as well.
As a true freshman, Brownfield said she had no expectations of significant playing time and planned to use this season to adapt to the college game and college life. In addition, she said it was most difficult adjusting to being 22 hours by car away from her home of Pueblo, Colo.
But when the injury to Freese and a minor injury to Winger opened the door early in the season, Brownfield stepped through.
I've put in a lot of innings as a freshman, and that's a really big thing for me," she said. "My expectations and where I'm at right now are totally different than what I thought they would be. I'm more a part of the pitching staff than I ever thought I would be, and that's a big honor."
With the team now entering the heart of conference play and still very much alive for a spot in the MAC tournament, the trio of Cardinal pitchers can relish its achievements. But Laux said none of them seems content to rest on her laurels.
"They've done really well so far knowing they had to step up and be a presence on this team," she said. "But they all continue to work really hard at improving."
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