HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College softball team will look to continue its historic run of success with a balance of experienced veterans and key newcomers during the 2016 season. The Fords made the Centennial Conference Tournament for the third straight year, a first in program history, a season ago. Haverford's Class of 2016 can become the first in program history to make the postseason in each season with a similar run this spring.
Pitching
Despite the loss of seven seniors who all saw time in the starting lineup a season ago, the one place Haverford will have experience on its side is in the circle. All-Centennial Conference pitchers Sara Tauriello and Emily Winesett hightlight that group. Tauriello is a three-time second-team All-Centennial Conference selection. She has led the Centennial Conference in ERA during each of the past two seasons. For her career, she is 35-6 with a 1.78 era. She is already the program's career record holder in ERA (1.38), opponent's batting average (.209), strikeouts (258), and strikeouts per seven innings (7.00). She needs just five wins to break the school record set by Becky Garibotto '09, while her five career shutouts rank second only to Garibotto's 11.
Winesett, a senior captain, will join Tauriello to make a potent combination in both ends of the doubleheaders. The 2014 second-team All-CC hurler went 10-4 with a 2.19 ERA last season. She is ranked third in program history with 30 career victories and is second to only Tauriello with 236 career strikeouts. Junior Kendall Chambers is also back after appearing in 20 games last season, starting eight of those contests. In her 49 innings of work, she struck out 26 batters and notched three victories. Chambers will also see time as the designated player where she batted .306 with a .435 on-base percentage.
Infield
Haverford will lose four-year starters at first base, second base, and shortstop. However, the team returns first-team All-Centennial Conference performers at catcher and third base. Co-captain Kristin Tatum will enter her fourth year as the starting catcher. The third-team all-region honoree from 2015 is already the program's career leader with 17 home runs, seven of which came last season. Behind the plate, she has thrown out a program-record 18 runners trying to steal. She hit .400 with a team-best .686 slugging percentage last season. Jessica Koshinski, the program's first Centennial Conference Rookie of the Year, is back after hitting .357 out of the leadoff spot. The third baseman also got on base at a .394 clip and finished with a .963 fielding percentage.
Looking to make a bigger impact in their second seasons, sophomores Emily Gorman and Alex Craig are back on the infield. Craig appeared in 12 games last season, primarily as the team's pinch runner where she scored three runs. Gorman enters the season batting 1.000 for her career after singling in her only at-bat against Swarthmore last spring. Freshmen Rachel Wolfson, sister of four-year starter Stephanie Wolfson '15, and Kaitlyn Guild was also look for time on the infield. Their classmate, Julie Blake, could see time in both the infield and outfield.
Outfield
Haverford will have to deal with the graduation of four senior outfielders from last year's team that all saw time in the lineup. The lone returning starter is senior Miwa Wenzel. In her 30 starts last season, Wenzel set career highs in every hitting category by batting .333 and scoring 14 runs. She also drove in 12 runs and did not commit an error in her 28 defensive chances in the outfield. Frehman Chloe Stavrianos will look to offset those losses due to graduation along with Blake.
Schedule
The Fords will be tested early with 10 games over Spring Break, three of which come against teams who were receiving votes in the NFCA Preseason Top 25 Poll. The season gets underway on Sunday, March 6 against Monmouth (Ill.) at 1 p.m. Of the team's 15 doubleheaders back up north, seven will be played on the Class of '95 Field. The home opener is set for Tuesday, March 22 against Immaculata at 3 p.m.