In the sunny state of South Carolina, the Castleton softball team kicked off its season with a hot start going 5-3 during its trip to the south. 

“We were able to get off to a good start on our spring trip, and that gives us a gauge of where we are early,” said head coach Eric Ramey. 

The Spartans kicked off their season rattling off five wins in their first six games during their trip down the coast. First, the team posted an impressive 8-2 win against Stevenson then followed it up with a 4-3 win against Notre Dame, Maryland. 

Castleton followed it up the next day dropping one game to Thiel, but then came out on top against Mount Aloysius 4-2. In the final two days of the trip the team got two more wins against SUNY Delhi and University of Mount Saint Vincent before dropping their last two games to Minnesota Morris and SUNY Poly. 

“So far, we’ve had great success in competing in all games until the end. We don’t give up throughout the whole game no matter who our opponent. Going forward, we need to focus on recovery for our bodies outside of softball, but during games we need to focus on execution of key plays as well as tactically understanding our opponents,” said junior Jess Heinrichs. 

For the remainder of the season, the Spartans have 16 of their last 26 games against Little East Conference opponents. A majority of the games will be at Spartan Field, however, that is if the weather allows for it after the team had what was supposed to be their home opener canceled due to weather. 

“Moving forward, hopefully the weather will cooperate for us so we can find some consistency in our game schedule. As the weather warms up, hopefully our bats will as well. Keys for us are to pitch well and keep things simple defensively and get some timely hits, but most importantly we need to stay healthy,” Ramey said. 

Castleton has yet to hit a homerun this season but has batted in 42 runs on 72 hits as a team while averaging a .237 batting average on the way to a 6-6 record. 

The Spartans last match up was against #19 ranked RPI in a double header where the team lost 5-0 and 3-0.

“Thursday’s games (against R.P.I) were great for us as a team, playing ranked teams always gives us a reason to play as one unit and use each other. Holding a team that is nationally ranked to 3 runs both games was huge for us and allowed our pitchers to see success in the circle. To find this success the rest of the season we need to trust each other and continue to hold each other accountable throughout the season,” said senior Madison Hanna.