Softball: Panthers look to build on record breaking 2011 season

Last spring, the Pitt softball team enjoyed the best season in the program’s short 14-year… Last spring, the Pitt softball team enjoyed the best season in the program’s short 14-year history.

The Panthers shattered single-season school records in numerous categories including overall wins (34), Big East wins (13), shutouts (14) and home runs (51).

With the start of another season on the horizon this weekend, Pitt is ready and excited to face the challenge of topping its 2011 accomplishments.

“Last season was the best year Pitt’s ever had for softball, and to know that we all contributed was really cool, but I think we can be even better this season,” junior catcher Holly Stevens said.

Fourth-year Pitt head coach Holly Aprile, who has led the Panthers to three straight winning seasons in her time at the helm, believes that Pitt can finish at the top of the conference this season.

“We’re focused on winning the Big East,” she said. “There’s the regular season and the tournament championship – we look at both of those. We’ve established ourselves in the conference and now we have to be able to show up and beat the better teams in the conference on a more consistent basis.”

Having lost five seniors – including starting pitchers Cory Berliner and Alyssa O’Connell and star outfielder Reba Tutt – Pitt’s biggest obstacle of this campaign will come in replacing its graduated starters.

The freshman class, however, has the potential to do just that.

Among the eight new faces on the Panthers’ roster, Coach Aprile thinks the two first-year pitchers could be vital to the future of Pitt softball.

“We have three on the pitching staff, but the top two are going to be a really strong tandem – Savannah King and Alexa Larkin – and I do think they can take our program to the next level,” Aprile said.  “They’re both freshmen, so experience does play a part. But I think if they can play with poise, they’re both ready to make an immediate impact.”

Senior infielder Niki Cognigni said that the older players have a lot of confidence that this freshman class can fill in right away.

“This year is going to be a really exciting year for us,” she said. “Some girls have big shoes to fill, which we know they are very capable of doing.”

While the 2012 season will be the first in a Pitt uniform for the eight members of the freshman class, it will also be the final year of play for the eight players in the Panthers’ senior class.

This season’s seniors joined the program in the same year Coach Aprile was promoted to head coach of Pitt softball, and she said she would love to see this group leave as the only senior class in the program’s history to record four straight winning seasons.

“This senior class was instrumental in forming the foundation for where we want this program to go,” Aprile said.  “They’ve been a really positive influence on the younger players in terms of doing things we need to do on a daily basis in order to be winners.”

Comprised almost entirely of seniors and freshmen, the new-look Panthers will begin their season in the South this weekend by competing in the Texas Invitational. Pitt will face Illinois and Texas on Friday before meeting Tennessee on Saturday.

Stevens said that facing top competition in early-season tournaments like the Texas Invitational will help mentally strengthen the Panthers for when Big East play starts in late March.

“These games are really tough,” she said. “We need to stay strong and always remember that we’re a good team. I think we’ll be good for the Big East.”