With many spring sports finally starting their seasons, American International College's softball team will be the next team to get their season underway as they face Rollins College in a double header, Friday, March 10. The double header is only the beginning of a season opening Florida trip for the Yellow Jackets as they have a double header with Georgian Court University and Philadelphia University on March 11. Up next is a double header with Molloy College on March 13 and then a double header with EmbryRiddle Aeronautical University on March 14 will round out the trip.
AIC has lost some key players from the previous season. Third baseman
Jorrdin Miller has graduated and she will be a huge loss to the team's line-up. She led the team in on base percentage (OBP), .423, and batting average (BA), .340. She also led the team in hits with 36, runs scored (RS), 19, was third in slugging percentage (SLG), .443 and second in stolen bases with five. Second baseman
Lyndsey Letourneau graduated as well and she was fifth in OBP, .333. And the final key loss for the Yellow Jackets is utility player,
Ainslee Penfield who was second in runs scored for the team with 17.
Although life after Miller and her graduating class won't be easy, there are some returning players for the Yellow Jackets who will certainly make the adjustment period easier. One of them is sophomore catcher
Kaley Kempf. Kempf led the team in home runs (HR) last year with four as well runs batted-in (RBI) with 19. She was also second on the team in both OBP and SLG with .367 and .454 respectively. Another key returning player is sophomore
Alexa DiLeo who played and started every game last year. She was second on the team in RBI's with 17 and third in OBP at .349. She also had the highest fielding percentage (FLD) of any position player on the team with .987. A third key returning player is senior outfielder
Keymell Cartwright who was second on the team in BA at .326 and not only led the team in stolen bases with nine, but also was never caught.
Arguably the biggest group of returners for AIC is their pitching staff. All three players who pitched for AIC last year senior
Alyssa Camargo, junior
Sarah Beliveau and senior
Jillian Bedard will be coming back. Camarago led the team in strikeouts (SO) with 99, as well as innings pitched (IP), 107.2, and walks (BB), 21. Beliveau led the team in earned run average (ERA), 3.5, and opponents' batting average, .333.
Coach Mairin Dudek and her crew will definitely be looking to capitalize on the experience this group has from last year and improve on their 17-21 record that only got them 11
th in the conference. After their Florida trip, the Yellow Jackets will start conference play with a home double header against Assumption on March 17.
