The 2013 Saint Xavier University softball campaign is set to kick-off on March 8 down in Clermont, Fla. SXU was ranked No. 25 in the 2013 NAIA Softball Coaches’ Preseason Top 25 Poll.
The Cougars will have some new faces, but they are accustomed to that as eight new faces joined this team last year and they did very well. Saint Xavier finished the season at 37-16 and made a trip to the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) Tournament Championship against Olivet Nazarene University (Ill.).
SXU fell 2-1 in the CCAC Tournament Championship, but this current team will look to rebound from that tough end to last season. The Cougars will have two new pitchers this year as both Amie Brown and Nicole Derezinski competed last year in their senior seasons.
Saint Xavier will return Megan Nonnemacher and adds two freshman in Shannon Pedersen and Nicole Nonnemacher to the pitching staff. Megan Nonnemacher led the pitching staff last year with an 18-8 record and a 1.54 earned run average (ERA). She also led the team in strikeouts with 169, Brown was second with 133 on the season.
SXU will miss Ashley Hunter who was an RBI machine for this team last year after posting a team-leading 43 runs batted in last season. Senior shortstop Ashley Sullivan was second in the RBI category last year for the Cougars with 29 on the season.
Senior third baseman Kate Mollohan joins Sullivan as the only two seniors on this squad. Mollohan had 55 hits last year which was good for second on the team and she also recorded 22 RBI’s on the campaign.
Saint Xavier takes on Hannibal-LaGrange University (Mo.) and Point Park University (Pa.) on Friday, March 8. The games are slated for a 2 p.m. and a 4 p.m. start in Clermont, Fla.
Greg Pilafas
Deputy Editor in Chief