The Hillsdale College softball team will begin their fall season by hosting Oakland University and Grand Valley State University on Sept. 18. 

While the team will be competing this fall, the games do not count for a record in the spring. 

“This is what they call our non-championship segment or our fall-ball games,” head coach Kyle Gross said. “They’re just practice games in a 45-day segment where we play any division including Division I teams.”

According to Gross, there are seven fall games currently scheduled with an anticipated total of either eight or nine fall games after scheduling is complete. 

“We play all over Michigan in the fall,” Junior shortstop Hailey Holtman said. “Our biggest and most exciting fall game will be when we play Michigan State University.”

Like last year, the team’s strength should be pitching, Gross said. The bulk of the pitching staff is returning this year despite losing senior pitcher Camryn Olson.

“Our biggest goal–as it is most years–is to make a good run in the G-MAC tournament,” Sophomore catcher Hannah Hoverman said. “And I’m sure we would like to win the regular season G-MAC like we did this past season. I think this year will really be a growing year for the team. So just continuing to get better throughout the season will be a huge goal for us.”

This fall seven freshmen join the team, almost entirely replacing the eight seniors who graduated last year. This year, Jenna Cantalupo will be the only senior on the team. 

Most of the freshmen are utility players, Gross said, so they can move from position to position.

“It’s definitely going to be a challenging year after we lost a good majority of our starting lineup who just graduated,” Holtman said. “So seeing how we come together as a team this year is going to be interesting.”

Hoverman said there will probably be a learning curve for the freshmen as they familiarize themselves with team dynamics. 

“I’ve had the opportunity to meet all of the incoming freshmen that are joining the team,” Hoverman said. “I think they are all great softball players with great futures ahead of them and a lot to contribute to the team.”

A learning curve with the team socially getting together is to be anticipated as well, Hoverman said, but she thinks it will be a great year of softball overall. 

Introducing the freshmen to the team’s culture and playing the fall season are two things that Gross said he is looking forward to. 

“There’s something wrong if a coach doesn’t love the fall season,” Gross said.