It is that time of the year again, The 2012 DePauw softball season is set to begin this the weekend with at the Rhodes Softball Showcase of Hope in Memphis, Tenn.
The tournament — which is being held to benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital — will host the Tigers and Westminster College (New Wilmington, Penn.) as well as former SCAC rivals Rhodes College and Hendrix College.
DePauw Softball, which will be playing its inaugural season in the NCAC, has already shaken up the conference preseason headlines after being picked to finish first in preseason polls.
The Tigers received six of the nine first place ballots — beating out last year's NCAC tournament victor, Hiram, and regular season conference champions, Denison. Senior Rachel Macbeth says the ranking has not gone to the team's head.
"We just try to continually be the best team we can be," MacBeth said. "We don't pay attention to other people's expectations...We just want to have fun and perform our best."
Senior outfielder Cymone Allen echoes her teammate's sentiment.
"Our attitude at practice has not changed since we found out about the ranking," Allen said. "We focus on making ourselves and the team better."
The Tigers finished 2011 with a 32-11-1 record and tied for fifth in Div. III for the second straight season. DePauw will look to solidify its preseason ranking when it begins NCAC play at home against Hiram on March 31.
Tigers Softball returns five seniors this seasons led by MacBeth. MacBeth led the team in batting in 11' with a .443 average and set the DePauw single-season records for at-bats (167) and hits (74). MacBeth also was selected to the 11' Capital One Academic All-American First Team by the College Sports Information Directors of America.
The team also returns junior pitcher Emily Bichler. Last season, Bichler posted a 3.60 ERA while netting 125 strikeouts over 41 starts. With a combination of both excellent batting and pitching, the Tigers seem to be very well equipped to have another winning season and possibly make a deep run into the NCAA Div. III finals. The teams travels to Rhodes College on Saturday to begin the season.