Jan. 30, 2008

By Ann Schatz
(Originally published on CSTV.com)

Again.

For the Baylor softball team, the 2008 season is built upon and inspired by that one-word mantra.

Translation: win the Big 12 championship.

Again.

Win a Regional and Super Regional.

Again.

Advance to the Women's College World Series.

Again.

Finish the season ranked in the Top 10.

Again.

Critics have plenty of questions for the Bears as to how they plan to do it all, again.

How do they figure to compensate for losing the .413 hitting power of National Player of the Year finalist Ashley Monceaux, who finished 2007 ranked 12th in the nation in RBIs per game and eighth in slugging percentage? How will they fill the hole left by the graudated Chelsi Lake, who hit .301 with 10 home runs and had a team-best .996 fielding percentage?

Who will they turn to after saying goodbye to career-wins leader Lisa Ferguson, who went 26-8 in her senior season?

A combined 30 home runs and 121 RBI are gone, not to mention Ferguson's 26 wins, so how can the team have its sights set on Oklahoma City?

Lady Bear head coach Glenn Moore ponders that reality, but genuinely likes and trusts the young roster that will begin the regular season in less than a month.

"We will be more consistent one to nine and I like our depth, especially in the circle, with the addition of hard-throwing junior college transfer Jenny Isham," Moore said. "She brings a swagger to the circle. Her teammates love competing for her and she will have an immediate impact. Junior pitcher Brittany Turner looked solid in fall ball and looks to be getting her feet underneath her. And pitcher Kirsten Shortridge is coming off a 17-win season and is developing nicely.

"Our defense is better than last year, too," Moore added. "And our speed? We stole 141 bases in 2007 and our team speed is at least where it was last season."

Baylor also returns some terrific sticks to the lineup. Third baseman Brette Reagan, a two-time NFCA All-American, is coming off a monster sophomore campaign in which she hit .341, parked 10 home runs and knocked in 44 runs.

Shortridge, the coveted recruit out of Keller, Texas, hit .340 in 2007 and was named the conference's freshman of the year. Her versatility gives the Lady Bears a solid presence in the circle or outfield.

Add the Wesley twins, sophomores Nicole and Tiffany, and you've got the kind of lineup that will contend in the always-loaded Big 12 conference.

But they'll have to do it without the kind of strong senior class that paved the way and got 'er done last year. Take a look at this roster and you won't find many - if any - senior starters.

Now, it's the young pups who are running the show.

"When it comes down to it," Shortridge said, "we have enough returners who are self-aware, who hold each other accountable and who play with Baylor pride. Getting our Big 12 championship rings last fall has made me so excited to get in the heat of things again."

On paper Baylor looks to be in pretty good shape. In fact, the Big 12 coaches picked the Lady Bears to finish third in conference play, behind two teams loaded with veteran talent, Texas A&M and Oklahoma.

But that does not do anything to reduce that bulls eye that is now squarely on their backs, or the expectations that go with winning a conference title, nor the raised program standards that now include traveling to the Women's College World Series.

"Last year was a great stepping stone for our program," Moore said. "I was out on our field with one of my assistants and it occurred to me - do you realize how far we've come in seven years? We were at the bottom of the conference and last year, for the first time, we won it all.

"I don't want it to end there," Moore continued. "The high of last season, of going to the World Series, it was addictive. I have visualized that scene so many times over the years and to experience it has made a huge impression on my mind and heart."

Regan, the heart and soul of this club, has fully bought into that sentiment.

"'Again' is our motto," Regan said. "One of our WCWS losses was to Arizona [the eventual national champion]. We battled so hard and we realized that we belonged. Now our challenge is to work even harder and challenge ourselves to step up and fill the losses."

To be sure, the Baylor offense won't put up the power numbers of last year's bunch. It will be tough to duplicate the 26 wins coming from the arm of Ferguson. But far from a bare cupboard, there is plenty to look forward to for the Lady Bears, who begin their season hosting Syracuse in the Getterman Classic Feb. 15-17.

"We're a work in progress," Regan said. "We're confident that the new players will be ready, but we really won't know until the games start happening, until we take the field wearing our Baylor uniforms.

"We're gonna get there."

Again.