Mar. 31—JAMESTOWN — Makenna Nold won't be pitching for the Jamestown High School softball team this year.
Head Coach Mike Soulis doesn't seem overly concerned about losing his all-state ace.
"I am excited," Soulis said. "You don't really replace what we lost in (Addison) Graves, Makenna (Nold) and Torrie (Mack) but when you look at who we've got coming back, I am super excited. We're going to have — between JV and varsity — two very competitive teams in our league."
The Blue Jays began practices on March 15 and will open the season with two nonconference games against Hillsboro/Central Valley and West Fargo Sheyenne on April 4. The games are scheduled to run at 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. at the Nelson Family Bubble on the University of Jamestown campus.
Jamestown is coming off a 19-16 overall finish last year. Soulis and his rather inexperienced squad made it to the West Region Tournament but wound up dropping 4-3 to Mandan in the state qualifier.
"Last year we had six or seven girls who didn't play much varsity softball," Soulis said. "That just took awhile to get used to. Stepping into it this year, a lot of us know what to expect.
"Getting to the state tournament is a very real possibility and that is our No. 1 goal right now but we have a lot of little goals that we will need to accomplish in order to get there," he said.
Out in the outfield the Jays will be welcoming back junior Sophia Bond for her third straight year. Violet Bohl and Marissa Moltzen will also be back for their second years. Soulis said he expects Jordan Mikkelson to play at third base again while Brynn Sorenson — who only began playing last year — will compete for the varsity shortstop position.
Freshman Brooke Jackson could see time at catcher and second base while first base will likely be manned by Avery Graves. Maddie Hoff, the Jays' No. 2 pitcher last year, is expected to compete for the starting position on the mound.
"It's not a rebuilding year but we are still learning and still getting better as a young group," Soulis said. "We have to keep putting things together during the year to get where we want to be at. I think we have the right group of girls that will make it a fun and exciting year."
Soulis also has two seniors, McKenna Miller and Addison Mansavage, who could compete for a spot on the roster as well as a handful of enthusiastic and talented freshmen who will force the upperclassmen to either compete or lose their spot.
The Blue Jays currently have 25 girls in grades 9-12. There are 33 girls at the grade 7-8 level.
"Success, for one thing," Soulis said of why the program is growing. "We're getting to be one of those teams that finishes in the top four. That shows that we are doing things right.
"The other part is girls doing things in the offseason," he said. "It's taking hitting lessons, it's taking pitching lessons that helps make the team better. Our numbers are staying pretty strong in the summer program which is helping maintain our numbers in the high school."
Jamestown's first conference game is scheduled for April 8 against Mandan. The doubleheader is set to begin at 4:30 p.m. at Trapper Field.
"We've come a long way with the level of play in North Dakota," Soulis said. "We're getting young ladies playing some higher level softball that probably wasn't realistic five, six, seven years ago.
"It's such a fun, fast-paced game," he said. "I look forward to seeing a lot of people down at Trapper (Field) and the UJ Bubble to see what kind of awesome young ladies we are putting on the field."
