UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University softball team concluded a historic season at the NCAA Division II Softball Midwest Regional at Grand Valley State University. The Cardinals (37-16) finished the season with over 30 wins for the second-consecutive season as well repeated as the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) tournament champions.
"As a new staff, we are thrilled about our first season," said first-year head softball coach Ryan Schalk. "We didn't reach the ultimate goal of winning a national championship, but we set a foundation for the expectations of what SVSU Softball will be in the future. The talent of this team speaks for itself, but more importantly, they are good students and good people. We will be back next year with something to prove and I can't wait to get on the field with the team in September. With the team's buy-in, we were able to implement several philosophical changes which showed in our run production and countless other statistical categories. We are excited for what the future holds for the program and can't wait to continue to build the program until we reach the ultimate goal of competing for a national championship."
The team saw several career records broken as well as a single-season mark in walks set at 190. Senior Sarah Gersch finished her career by registering her name in several career record categories including first in at-bats (673) and stolen bases (104). She is second in hits (231), triples (19), and runs scored (162), tied for eighth in doubles (33) and batting average (.343), and ninth in runs batted in (108). Fellow senior Jackie Popko joined her in the record books as she completed her career first in runs scored (170), second in stolen bases (97), runs batted in (130), and walks (78). She is third in home runs (30) and fifth in at-bats (620) and hits (208).
Junior pitcher Emily Depew also moved up the career record book as she currently sits fourth in wins with 51 and strikeouts with 474. She is tied for fourth in appearances with 90 and tied for fifth in starts at 72. Her 474.1 innings pitched has her in sixth on the chart while her 50 complete games and 1.92 earned run average ranks seventh all-time. Junior Alyssa Muench and senior Jaclyn Groves also punched their names into the pitching record book. Muench is tied for fifth in career saves with five while Groves ties for ninth with three in that category.
Depew and Popko added regional honors to their resume with NCAA D2CCA All-Midwest Second Team awards. The duo was joined by Alexis Gills on the National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Region second team as well. Gills was joined by Paige Kolinski, Sydney Herioux, and Muench on the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team®.
Gersch, Depew, and Popko were named first-team All-GLIAC while Kolinski, Herioux, Katelyn Pnacek, and Gills were on the second team. Olivia Sabin and Muench were honorable mentions when the conference office announced the postseason awards.