Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Softball season is underway in Colton as the Wildcats played their second game of the year Tuesday, beating Orofino 8-6.
After the start of practices got delayed by the basketball team winning a sixth state championship, for which catcher Carrie Hennigar led the cheerleaders, the Colton team got in their 12 required practices before their first game.
The team lost just two starters from last year’s state championship team; Kaitlyn Druffel and Kaden Dahmen.
In their place are newcomers.
“We’ve got three freshmen stepping it up,” said eighth-year head coach Brad Nilson, referring to Emma Schultheis, Kendall Druffel and Daylinn Smith.
Returning strong at pitcher for the Wildcats are senior Winnie Schultheis and sophomore Zoe Moser. New on the mound will be Emma Schultheis.
Overall, Nilson said this year’s team will reflect past years.
“It’s just a normal group of girls that work hard,” he said. “These girls don’t win state championships because they lay around. They understand what it takes.”
As far as what they’ve been spending time on in practice, Nilson said there’s a pattern there too.
“We always go back to fundamentals. You gotta do everything the same. Soon as you skip one thing and assume they know, that’s when things go wrong.”
The team aims to make it to Yakima once again and defend their championship.
“The ultimate goal is we’re going to state. That’s why we play. But it’s individual goals. Everybody has an individual goal to work on.”
Playing against Orofino Tuesday, Colton trailed 4-0 before freshman Smith got the Wildcats first hit.
“Then the floodgates opened,” said Nilson.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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