As the season of “March Madness” begins for basketball fans, it’s never too early to begin looking at the potential NCAA softball bracket and who might play the role of bracket-buster in May. With nearly a full month of the 2018 softball season already gone, few teams have surprised and impressed like the UC Davis Aggies.
In 2017, the Aggies finished dead last in the conference, eighth out of eight teams and with just 22 wins on the year. Now, eighteen games into their 2018 campaign, the Aggies have already reached the halfway mark to their win total from a year ago, and seem to be in good position to post a winning overall record for the first time this decade.
“It has been great to see some of our young ones step up already this year,” UC Davis head coach Erin Thorpe said. Now in her fourth season as the Aggies’ head coach, Thorpe’s roster includes sixteen freshmen and sophomores and just one senior. In addition to Brooke Yanez, a freshman, sophomore hurlers Katie Kibby and Frankie Mendoza have also seen significant time in the circle.
Solid performances off the pitching rubber have been a major catalyst to the Aggies’ early successes in 2018. True freshman Yanez sports a 1.09 ERA on the year and eighty strikeouts in just over 64 innings of work and has been in the top five nationwide in strikeouts for the entirety of the 2018 campaign.
“Brooke is a very young pitcher, and she is going to need to learn to be consistent during her career,” Thorpe said. “I think she is getting some good opportunities to do that so far this year. Her potential is through the roof…. she has the opportunity now to work through some things, while she’s young and fresh; she has had some lights-out performances and then she has struggled in other opportunities, but what we’ve seen from her so far, she looks to have an extremely promising career.”
Despite two shutout losses to Tennessee and a 6-1 defeat at the hands of Arizona in the season-opening Kajikawa Classic, the Aggies’ resume is better than their 11-7 record would seem to indicate. A one-run loss to Cal was a heartbreaker after the game’s sole run scored on a wild pitch, and the Aggies bested Fresno State and Oklahoma State at the Bulldog Classic and Mary Nutter Classic, respectively. The victory over Oklahoma State saw Yanez hold Cowgirl stars Vanessa Shippy and Madi Sue Montgomery hitless, while collecting twelve strikeouts in the game.
“That is something that our program has traditionally struggled with, the mindset that someone ‘should’ win this game, who ‘shouldn’t’ win this game,” said Thorpe.
The veteran coach said her team’s youth benefits them in such situations. “I think it is a great thing, because they don’t think about what’s ‘supposed’ to happen. This is probably the best that this program has reacted, at least since I’ve been here, to playing a Power Five opponent or a team who might be ranked in the top 25. We have been really impressed with how our team has been able to go out there and play our game, no matter who the opponent is.”
The Aggies’ youth movement not only looks to have them setup well into the future, but with the potential to challenge in the conference race when Big West play begins later this season. “It’s a tough conference with a lot of good teams,” Thorpe said. “There’s always some great games and teams in this conference.”
With a number of players who have experienced championships at a lower level, the Aggies will now look to collect one as a collective unit, this time at the game’s highest level. And after a hot start, they very well could do it. Thorpe and her Aggies are certainly a team to watch down the season’s home stretch.
