SU softball yearns for SWAC title
Of all the road trips, all the doubleheaders, all the extra-inning games she’s been through as a standout softball player at Southern, junior shortstop Shawntall Steamer said one moment has stood above the rest.
It happened May 7 at Irondale, Ala., in the 10th inning of a game Southern had to win at the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament.
Facing big, bad Mississippi Valley State — the league’s most dominant program for much of the past decade — the Jaguars scored three runs in the top of the inning and prevailed, 4-2.
“It was so good,” Steamer said. “We all finally came together. We were finally on one page. And we fought Valley, and we beat them.”
It was, as Steamer said, the highest of moments.
Followed, very quickly, by the worst.
The next morning, in an elimination game, Valley broke a sixth-inning tie and dumped Southern 6-2.
It hardly mattered that the Devilettes later lost to Jackson State, which claimed its first softball title in school history.
“It seemed like we fell apart,” said second baseman Audrey Phillips, now a senior. “It was hard to explain.”
It was, in some respects, another great year for Southern. The team scored an early season upset of mighty Louisiana-Lafayette; it finished second in the Western Division; Phillips led the SWAC in runs (48) and ranked second in steals (27); and Steamer made the All-SWAC first team after ranking second in hits (59).
But one very important thing was missing. A conference championship, along with the SWAC’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
At 2 p.m. Thursday, Southern begins anew, cracking the seal on another season with a whale of an opener against Colorado State.
The Jaguars are hoping that this, at last, will be their year.
The feeling is understandable. SU brings back the bulk of its lineup, which finished second in the SWAC with a .290 team average and led the league with 32 home runs (Steamer had seven of them, Phillips four).
But the big difference could be inside the circle.
“For is the first time,” Phillips said, “I feel like we have the pitching.”
In recent years, Southern often survived with only two pitchers, who, for any number of reasons, failed to stay healthy.
While the offense and defense were solid last season, the Jaguars’ team ERA was a pedestrian 6.49.
This time, the team has five players who can pitch on a given afternoon — including freshman Carla Arismendi, who had a 1.01 ERA and 188 strikeouts last season at North Bergen (N.J.) High School. In 153 innings, Arismendi gave up 26 walks.
Also among the new pitchers: sophomore Gabrielle McDaniel, a 5-foot-10 Madisonville native who spent last year at Marion (Ala.) Military Institute.
Like all the other students, she had to drink two glasses of water before each meal, during which no one is allowed to speak.
That was certainly a new experience.
So, too, is this one at Southern.
“I’m definitely ready,” McDaniel said. “I’m really excited about this program. I think we’re going to dominate. That’s why I’m here.”