Longtime head coach Bob Loshek must replace nine graduated seniors and six starters this season, but expectations are the beat will go on for the Park High girls' softball team.
Park went 17-7 last season, including 14-4 and a third-place finish in the always rugged Suburban East Conference. Forest Lake won the conference crown before finishing second at state. The team which won the Class 3AAAA title, Rosemount, edged Park 2-1 in the section semifinals.
Missing from that team are longtime standouts such as second baseman Edie Walton, infielder/outfielder Emma Ambrose, shortstop Skylar Croker, catcher Bryleigh Dana, outfielders Noelle Krumrie, Peyton Kaplan and Juliana Field, first baseman Autumn Degler and third baseman Riley Rasmussen. Krumrie and Ambroz signed last season to play college ball at the University of Duluth, Crocker went to Loyola University and Dana to Concordia – St. Paul.
That’s a lot lost and a lot to replace in the lineup. But the Wolfpack teams usually have plenty of talent waiting in the wings.
“Losing six starters is a big deal,” said Loshek, who is entering his 15th season directing the Wolfpack. “But coming back we’ve got kids that have been in the program a number of years, either as baserunners or catcher or pitchers and now we’ve got a number of them who are going to have to step up into starting roles.”
Back for the Wolfpack is the entire pitching staff of freshman Stella Fritsche, sophomore Ava Youngquist and eighth grader Mackenzie Darsow, along with returning senior infield stars Grace Conaway and Briana Lee. Conaway, Lee and Alexis Novak are the only seniors on the roster, however. It’s a relatively young squad with two juniors, four sophomores, two freshmen and three eighth graders on the varsity.
“It’s nice to have young pitching, nice to have a plethora of young pitching,” Loshek said. “But the tough part is going to find innings for them. The good news is that they can play other positions. But this is the one time you kind of wish you had a college schedule where you have doubleheaders all the time and twice on the weekend and you get your pitchers that many more innings.”
Conaway and Lee, both five-year letterwinners and multiple year all-conference selections, will be the leaders of the Pack, and the latest Park players to play college softball next season. Conaway will play softball at Stonehill College. Lee committed to Augustana. Conaway will play third base for Park, while Lee will switch from second to shortstop.
“A good season would be at the end of the day all coming together as a team,” said Lee. “We are kind of a new squad but overall, just coming together and being there for each other and fighting for a win.
While Lee and Conaway will anchor the infield, all three outfielders will be new. Park junior and veteran infielder/outfielder Lauren Osland will take the lead in centerfield.
“Then we’ve got juniors and sophomore and freshman, they’ve all vying for it in different spots all over the place,” said Loshek.
“I think we’re kind of restarting, we graduated a lot of seniors last year,” said Conaway, who is starting her fourth year at third base. “That was a really tough loss for us. We all played very well together as a team. So, this year we’re really focused on bonding together early in the season and then hopefully we’re going to win some big games.”
Weaknesses will be inexperience in many positions, Loshek said. “At the same time, I think our strength will be our pitching and our defense because we practice it so much and we work on it so much and out pitchers, again, we’ve got three of them. You’ve got an eighth, a ninth and a tenth grader that have all pitched enough so that will be one of our strengths as well.”
“Strengths, I think it’s a great group of girls who will eventually play really well together as a team, especially after our seniors graduate, me, Bri and Lex, ourselves,” said Conaway. “Weakness, since we’re such a new batch, it might be tough at first but once we get going, I think we’ll be good.”
Loshek declined to name favorites for conference honors. “In this conference I could just say one through eight, or one through nine. But Forest Lake has all their pitching back and they took second in the state. East Ridge who finished the season really well last year, same thing pitching, Cretin’s got a whole bunch of kids back. Those are just three teams there. Stillwater, they won the conference. They didn’t make the state tournament but they’re always tough with as many kids as they have. It’s always a battle. Woodbury-Park is always going to be a battle. It’s every time.”
Despite having a fairly young and inexperienced team, Park’s goals haven’t changed.
“A state championship,” Loshek said when asked what would make successful season. “That’s what everybody’s goal is. Some teams they say that, and they hope and maybe they have a .500 season or maybe they get to the section semifinals or the finals, but our goal and our sights are always a section championship and a state championship every year. We push for it, and we work for it and fight for it and if it works out great. And if it doesn’t work out, we’re just going to keep coming at you no matter what.”
Park is scheduled to open the season at Forest Lake on Wednesday, April 3. The Wolfpack will host rival East Ridge in its home opener on Friday, April 5, at Charlie Whitbred Field starting at 4:30 p.m.
“We’re really looking forward to getting in that section final game,” said Lee. “Our big goal is to end up going to state. … I think our strengths are we work together for the majority of last year, so these girls have kind of seen our competition and how to adjust to them. Probably our weaknesses are a lack of playing last year maybe because we did have a bunch of outstanding seniors. So, it was kind of hard to work some new girls in, but we can get there though. We lost six seniors last year, but they left their jerseys in the right place and there’s some new girls picking them up.”
