With the start of the 2017 Roseville softball season only days away, intrigue is building as to how this year’s team will build on the success of last year.

Roseville ended last season with a 21-8-1 record, a CVC league championship and a playoff berth, where they advanced to the quarterfinals of the division 2 playoffs. With over half the team returning as juniors and seniors, this experienced and eager team knows how to win, could potentially have the ability to return to the accolades of last year, and maybe even improve on them.

“We are all really excited about this season. We all want to do what we did last year, which is win league” said junior second baseman Karli Dugger. “We hope to improve from last year and get even farther in playoffs.”

However, no success is attained without practice. The team started training and preparing for the upcoming season as far back as the beginning of this school year.

“We did a fall-ball league, and most of us are on travel teams year round, so we keep up with hitting, pitching, fielding, defense, everything,” Dugger said.

Last year, Roseville, Bella Vista and Del Campo were the top teams in the CVC and it looks to be the same this year, with both those rival powers returning lots of talent. Roseville is also scheduled to play these powerhouses multiple times each this season. If the Tigers want to have success this year, beating these teams at least once or twice when they play is a must.

Despite the challenging schedule ahead of them, with another offseason under their belts as well as a the previous years they played, this year’s Roseville team should be a force to be reckoned with, especially considering the fact that the tigers are returning six of their top ten players in every statistical category, including offensive weapon senior Anna Ostrom, who topped the charts in batting, fielding and baserunning last season.

In addition to their effective offense, the Tiger’s defense is one of the main reasons they had such success last year, allowing more than two runs only 4 times out of their 21 wins, thanks in part to returning pitcher Megan Anderson. Anderson, who recently committed to Lewis and Clark University, had 159 strikeouts last season, and opponents had a batting average of .191 against her. Anderson cites an entire team effort to the success of last season and believes that the team is even better than before.

“I feel that we aren’t going to have a specific player stand out among the rest, because we all have talents individually, whether it be having the most hits in one game, but then having a great defensive performance the next game, it just depends honestly.”

Anderson believes the focus of this years team is going to be strong, and fueled by a desire to repeat last year’s league title.

“I know for sure we are a very determined team. We want to win and repeat as league champs, we want to win that championship hold and hold that championship ring.”

After losing the season opener to Del Oro 10-0 without pitcher Megan Anderson, Roseville turned it around and beat last year’s section champs 7-4, which could be pivotal in setting the cadence for the Tiger’s season. The Tigers prepared for their first showdowns of the year with the best experience possible: live games.

“We had some scrimmages we worked in, and we worked on the short game because teams like Rocklin and Del Oro liked to small ball, as well as seeing some live pitching because it had been a while,” Dugger said. “We are just continuing to practice hard, and look forward to the future games.”

It will be very interesting to see what goes down this season on the diamond, as all signs point to another highly successful and dominant year for the tigers, and, after the dominant performance against Rocklin, an impressive showing against the rest of the preseason teams before league could predict the greatness that this season could hold.