ALVA, Okla. – Northwestern Oklahoma State's softball team finally got their first taste of game action after a long off-season that saw many new faces join the program.
After six games of evaluation for coach
Charlie Zeilman, he feels like he got a firm understanding of what his team needs to work on in the final days leading up to conference play. Northwestern finished the weekend 1-5 and will now look to work on a few key areas in order to improve upon their performance from this past weekend.
The Rangers got solid production from two key returners in juniors
Madison McGraw and
Audrey Estes. Despite all the new faces on the field, both players started right where they left off last year in the black-and-red. McGraw hit .389 for the weekend and led the Rangers in multiple categories including hits (7), runs (5), and total bases (13). Estes appears to have solidified her role as the starting catcher after splitting time last year by hitting .400 over the weekend and only committing one error in the six games behind the plate.
The transfers that coach Zeilman has been mentioning all off-season showed up in a big way to compliment the returning duo of McGraw and Estes with multiple quality at bats throughout the weekend. Seward County Community College transfer
Brittany Corrales stepped up over the weekend by leading the team with a .429 batting average in her five games of action. Junior college All-American transfer
Madi Parrott didn't produce quite the statistical numbers coach Zeilman anticipated after a stellar career at Des Moines Area Community College, but he was impressed with the quality of her at bats and how tough of an out she proved to be throughout the weekend.
One of the key areas of improvement that Zeilman mentioned was the overall communication throughout his team on the defensive side of the ball. That trouble with communication could be attributed in large part to the lack of identity coach Zeilman's team has in the young season.
"We're still trying to feel each other out," coach Zeilman said, "They're still trying to figure each other out and find their identity because we've had so many people transfer in. They're still trying to get comfortable with themselves and me as a coach."
That developing identity will be put to the test this weekend with six more games over the course of Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Rangers will face-off with Texas- Permian Basin, Eastern New Mexico, Texas A&M-Kingsville, Lubbock Christian, Texas Woman's University, and Tarleton State. The competition will prove to be a little bit tougher this week, which coach Zeilman says will be welcomed by his team as they put the finishing touches on preparation for Great American Conference league play the following weekend.
