Girls of Spring: St. Michael-Albertville Softball Squad Hits the Ground Running

The question for any coach coming off a losing season is: Do you take last season and completely throw it out the window? Or, do you try to learn from the mistakes you made en route to a 7-15 season and build on them?

“I think you have to build on it, a little bit. But you can’t dwell on last year,” said St. Michael-Albertville softball skipper Kellie Schumway. “We had a group that never gave up. But they were really young, and playing in a conference that is really talented.”

The squad has “already shown great improvement from last year” en route to a 3-1 start in the Mississippi 8, and a 3-2 start overall. The Knights clobbered Zimmerman and have edged two conference rivals in Cambridge and Becker, a couple of teams they struggled with last season.

“The Becker win was big for us,” said senior Alexa Varness, who plays second base and right field for the Knights. “It brought us a lot of confidence.”

The Knights have six seniors (compared to just two last year) that are all contributing, Schumway said.

“They’re very good leaders. They get the other girls involved. We have a very vocal group,” Schumway, who’s in her fourth year as head coach of the squad, said.

The St. Michael-Albertville girls are very athletic, as well. Some are standouts in other sports – such as Ashley McDonald (hockey) and Rachel Hackenmueller (volleyball). Others, like catcher Rachel Gebo, have found their niche in softball.

“She’s been behind the plate the last couple of seasons and just works with our pitchers very well,” Schumway said. “That’s huge if you can have that in softball. The catcher has to be strong, defensively.”

The offensive power, so far, has come from some of the underclassmen, which the seniors readily admit.

“They’re hitting well,” said Bailey Thompson. “I think they’ve worked hard over the summer.”

Some of that might be attributed to a rule change in Minnesota softball this season. The high school league moved the rubber back three feet, giving batters an additional yard to pick up the ball out of a pitcher’s hand.

That’s new for seniors at the varsity level. For juniors, it might not be as large of an adjustment.

Torey Malerich, a junior, leads the Knights’ pitching staff. So far, she’s 3-2 with a 2.07 ERA and 20 strikeouts, with just three walks on the year. She’s hit one batter.

Despite giving up seven runs to the Bison, she also struck out seven.

“So far, so good,” Schumway said of her young pitcher.

Buffalo looks like the team to beat in the Mississippi 8 Conference, and has lived up to that standard thus far. After that, it’s wide open, both the seniors and Schumway said. Just four games in, the Knights are in second, but are joined by teams like Monticello, Cambridge and Becker.

“Getting wins over those guys [Becker] early helps a lot,” McDonald said.