By RICHIE HALL
Reporter Sports Editor
This season will likely be the start of a new chapter for the Carmel softball team’s history book.
The Greyhounds have a new coach this year, Ginger Britton. She will take over a team that definitely trends to the young side – of the 15 girls on the varsity roster, eight of them are sophomores. But many of those sophomores also played varsity last year as freshmen, so there is a healthy dose of experience on the team.
“This year we are looking forward to a young starting line up with a few key returning varsity players,” said Britton.
On top of the list is Stormy Kotzelnick, one of those sophomores. Kotzelnick had an amazing freshman year, batting .600 and leading Carmel in almost every offensive category: Hits (45), runs scored (39), runs batted in (34), home runs (11) and doubles (10).
While Kotzelnick will provide an automatic spark to the line-up, the Greyhounds did graduate several seniors from last year’s team that were .300, and in a couple cases .400, hitters.
But the sophomore class has other good players, too. Sarah Goddard is another key returner who brings back a .338 average, including 26 hits and 19 RBIs. Darby Roberts is one of two seniors on the team, and she helped out last year with 11 RBIs and five doubles.
Other players returning with varsity experience are senior Sydney Fox, junior Hannah Jungblut and sophomores Brooke Bair, Sommer Edwards and Maddie Searles.
“With being such a large group of underclassman, I am excited to see them work together and really solidify as a team working for a similar goal,” said Britton. “Along with the younger girls there are key leadership roles being filled by the upperclassman.”
Pitching-wise, Edwards returns after posting a 7-5 record last year. She led the team in strikeouts with 42. Searles made a handful of circle appearances as well.
“The pitching staff is relatively new to the varsity level, but with four pitchers, our goal is to play off each other’s strengths as everyone sees innings,” said Britton.
Carmel is scheduled to open its season on the road, with games at Hamilton Southeastern on Tuesday and at Cathedral on Thursday.
Carmel roster
Seniors: Sydney Fox, Darby Roberts.
Juniors: Hannah Jungblut, Ariana Zdobylak.
Sophomores: Brooke Bair, Sommer Edwards, Sarah Goddard, Cate Harden, Stormy Kotzelnick, Lauren Reiter, Olivia Roop, Maddie Searles.
Freshmen: Sophia Derziotis, Ella Greenawald, Megan Nichols.