Thunder Softball Team Begins 2010 Season

Mar 16

Tom Urbanski

The Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College Thunder Softball team opens their 2010 season with two long days of play on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 16-17 as part of the Minnesota Classic Tournament inside the Irish Dome in Rosemount, Minnesota. The Thunder’s schedule begins bright and early on Tuesday with a 7:15 a.m. start against Vermilion Community College, followed by games against Mesabi Range Technical College at 9:00 a.m., Dakota College of Bottineau, ND at 10:45 a.m., and a fourth game at 12:30 p.m. against an opponent to be determined in the round robin tournament format.

The Thunder return to the Irish Dome on Wednesday morning to play four more games, starting with Northland Community College at 7:15 a.m., followed by games against Ridgewater Community College, Vermilion Community College and a fourth opponent to be determined.

Head coach Kerry Rodd returns to lead the Thunder for the third season and the program’s largest opening day roster of 15 local players.

“We have overhauled our team completely from the first two years,” said Coach Rodd. “With 12 new players we expect a huge learning curve, but our players love the challenge and they are a great group of student athletes. This group is extremely gifted in the classroom and they soak up everything we teach them like a sponge, so that has made it a lot of fun to go to practice.”

The team has been practicing for more than a month in the gym on campus and getting in a little bit of outside work when daylight and weather allow.

“We have really worked on defense, getting our pitchers ready, and working on our swings,” said Rodd. “We take pride in our ability to hit, so we wanted to get the new players up to speed as soon as possible and then make some minor changes to help them become more consistent at the college level.”

Playing eight games in two days will yield some early season information for the veteran coach.

“The biggest thing is that we want to get an idea of how players react to the college game,” said Rodd. “We need to find out if our players can handle the bigger and stronger players and how they react to game situations.” Rodd is looking forward to more depth on the roster this season.

“I think we’ll have a good combination of speed and power hitters,” commented Rodd. “Depth will be our strength. We can go four deep on the bench and we have four capable pitchers. I look for our pitching to not overpower people, but hopefully throw strikes and make the opposition put the ball in play and let our defense work. I think our pitchers will provide us with a little of everything and I am hoping we can rotate at least three of the four pitchers on a regular basis.”

Leading the pitchers will be returning starter and captain Steph Engelmeier of Hermantown. Jenny Pederson of AlBrook brings college playing experience as she transferred to Fond du Lac from Mesabi Range, and newcomers Jade Kristofferson of Rush City and Dana Letica of Proctor round out the pitching staff.

The outfield will be led by returning players and captains Megan Johnson of Esko and Jenny Wannemacher of Grand Portage/Cook County High School. The rest of the team will be very young with 11 freshman and 12 players who have seen little or no college playing experience.

Rodd is excited about the arrival of some strong freshman including Lisa Muehlberger of Duluth Central, Amanda Larson of Moose Lake-Willow River, Kortney Lindberg of Esko, and Anna Engelemeier of Hermantown. Rodd expects a number of the other players will step up during the season to fill roles and contribute to the success of the team.

“I am looking forward to watching Lisa Muehlberger and Anna Engelmeier play at the college level,” said Rodd. “Lisa has great hands and a lot of power at the plate, and Anna is a pesky player that can cause damage on the bases as well as play tough defense.”

The Thunder’s first home doubleheader is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 6 at Braun Park in Cloquet.