Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks, said it best: “It’s a beautiful day for a game, let’s play two.”
Tomorrow afternoon, the Saint Louis University softball team will do just that, as they open their home season with a doubleheader against the Austin Peay Lady Govs.
The Bills are coming off their first win of the season, coming last week against Prairie View A&M. The game was the final game of a six-game road stretch through the state of Texas, which included three games against Houston, marking the opener of the Billikens’ Conference USA season, and two games against Stephen F. Austin.
Austin Peay brings with them an overall record of 7-11-1. They are coming off of a double-header sweep of Alabama A&M last Monday.
“We’ve been working a lot on offense lately. We had a couple problems last week so we have been really concentrating our hitting this week in practice,” Nicole Bohnenstiehl said. “We have also been working a little bit on a couple minor defensive situations.”
The Billikens are coming off one of their best seasons in history. They finished last year with an overall record of 24-27. This year’s installment of the Bills returns 12 letter-winners from last year’s team, including four seniors. The seniors are Bohnenstiehl, Adrie Bogaars, Beth Puttcamp and Beth Yagge.
Bohnenstiehl led the Bills last year both with her arm, as she won 13 games for the Bills, and with her bat, hitting six homers and belting in a team-record 31 RBI’s. Her efforts landed her on the C-USA first team. Bogaars held down the hot corner for the Bills last year, belting in 6 homers and 25 RBI’s. She will once again be relied on to provide a lot of offense as well as to man third base again. Puttcamp brings new meaning to the phrase “everyday player,” as she has started in left field for the Bills since her freshman year and will continue to do so again this year. Yagge will continue to be the model of consistency at first base, hopefully being able to expound upon a .315 average and 16 doubles from last year as well as retain her stature as a Verizon Academic All-American.for the rest of the season, the Bills have high hopes.
“We want to win the conference title and the conference tournament,” Bohnenstiehl said.
But as the clich? goes, they just have to take it “one game at a time”. Or, in this case, two games at a time.
“Let’s play two.”
