2021 Softball Statistics
MENOMONIE (February 18, 2022) - The calendar says spring is a bit more than a month away and the cold weather forecasted for the next week shows no signs of spring.
A sure harbinger of spring has always been baseball - and softball by extension - with spring training and early spring games. And the Blue Devil softball team will be that first harbinger of spring when they open the 2022 season with eight games over the next two weekends at the Bethany Kwik Trip Softball Invitational at the Mankato Dome in Mankato, Minn.
Stout opens the 2022 season by playing Nebraska Wesleyan University and Buena Vista University Saturday, Feb. 19 and Concordia-Moorhead and Northland College, Sunday, Feb. 20. Stout will return to Mankato Feb. 26-27 with four more games.
Nebraska Wesleyan advanced to the first ever A-R-C Championship game last spring after working their way through the tournament bracket. The Prairie Wolves finished last year at 16-21 overall. Buena Vista returns pitcher Ashtyn Miller, an all-region selection, who recorded 121 strikeouts last season. The Beavers finished 2021 at 19-23 overall. Both schools play in the American Rivers Conference.
Concordia, a member of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC), finished last season at 22-21 overall. The Cobbers earned their first-ever MIAC playoff spot, won their first-ever conference playoff game, made the double-elimination semifinals for the first time ever and finished with 22 wins, tied for the most in program history. Northland made the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) post-season tournament in 2021 for the first time since 2014, return a plethora of talent and will look to go on another deep run in 2022. Jenna Reyes and Kaylee Harnack are back for the LumberJills who were both named first team All-UMAC in 2021. Northland finished last season at 17-19 overall.
The Blue Devils feature a large roster under first year head coach
Chris Iliopoulos, who has been with the program for the last four seasons as the lead assistant coach. The Stout roster includes six seniors, four juniors, seven sophomores and nine freshmen.
Stout returns a good portion of their starting line-up, including All-WIAC first team shortstop
Shannon Jones.
Jones started and played 30 games - 27 at shortstop, three as the designated player - for the Blue Devils and led the team in home runs with three and hit at a .326 clip, going 31-of-95, scoring five runs. Hitting in the second through fourth positions, Jones drove in 12 runs. Jones hit all three of her home runs against conference foes.
Addison Murray returns at catcher, where she started 16 games.
Lexy Kupczak started two games behind the plate and saw action in four games.
At second base, Katlyn Belleau and
Taylor Mancl alternated games. Kaylie Pfeffer started 24 games at third base and was backed up by
Maggie O'Brien.
In the outfield,
Kelly Beck,
Korin Hall and
Kaylee Peterson have been regulars throughout their careers. Peterson started 30 games last year in right field and and hit .291 with nine RBI. Hall started 21 games in left field and four games in center field. Hall batted .289 and stole four bases. Beck made 18 starts, alternating between center field and left field. Beck recorded six outfield assists.
Aliyah Smetana saw action in 20 games and started twice in right field. Smetana, played in 17 games as a pinch runner, stole three bases. Smetana made the most of her limited at-bats, hitting at a .333 clip, including a double.
Kate Funk and
Ashley Jacobson slotted into the designated player position. Funk, who hit home runs in back-to-back at-bats in her first collegiate game as a freshman, has experience at first base, a position that was vacated by the graduation of
Meghan Kelly. In addition to the designated player spot, Jacobson has played at catcher, first base, second base and shortstop. Jacobson was named the UW-Stout Athlete of the Week after she recorded two hits - a single and a double - in a single inning in a win over UW-Eau Claire.
Alyssa Albrecht started a couple of games in the infield and saw action in 10 games.
In the circle, the Blue Devils graduated starting pitchers
Melea Bruns and Sommer Kuntsmann. Maddie Kleinschmidt and
Mackensie Wolterstorff have both seen starts over their careers, but predominately came on in relief. Kleinschmidt last season went 2-2 overall and struck out 19 over 33.2 innings. Wolterstorff went 1-1 and struck out 24 over 20.1 innings.
Jordan Caby saw her first collegiate action last year and went 1-2 in five appearances over 10.2 innings.
The Blue Devils posted a 6-26 overall record, but finished the season with a bang in the WIAC Tournament, taking top seeded UW-Oshkosh to extra innings and then the final out in a 10-inning 4-3 loss.
Newcomers this year include outfielders
Regan Haack and
Emma Muehlenbeck; pitchers
Marissa Boettcher,
Madalyn Lambert and
Anna Blanford; infielders
Ava Williams,
Alexa Anderson and
Hannah Timm; and catcher
Grace Vowell.
