Emporia State Focused Heading into Regional

2010 MIAA Player of the Year Miranda Campbell

By David Boyce

The secret is out on why Emporia State has won the last seven MIAA Softball Tournaments. The players like appetizers and dessert with their post tournament dinner.

If Emporia State would have lost to Nebraska-Omaha instead of pulling out a 10-1 victory in the championship game Saturday at Blue Valley Recreation Complex, a stop at Chili's would have never happened.

“We would have just grabbed something and took off and not have a sit down dinner,” Emporia State coach Kristi Bredbenner said.

Actually, pride, tradition and good players are the real reasons the Hornets have done well in conference.

“We know the tradition here and the tradition is we win the conference tournament every year,” senior Miranda Campbell said. “When we walk in there we know we have a target on our backs. We know we have to play our best, and it brings the best out of us. We go in there wanting to dominate.

“You don't want to be the team that ends the streak of winning the conference tournament.”

 A solid regular season plus the conference tournament title earned the Hornets something more satisfying than nachos and wings and sweeter than chocolate cake.

Emporia State, 48-12, plays host to one of the South Central Regionals. The Hornets open the four-team regional against Texas Woman's, 37-20, at 5:30 p.m. Friday at Turnbull Field.

The other two teams in the double-elimination tournament are Angelo State, 43-12 and Central Oklahoma, 32-19.

The winner advances to a two-team super regional that will be held May 21-22, and that winner moves on to the eight-team national tournament May 27-31 at Heritage Park Softball Complex in St. Joseph, Mo.

A trip to St. Joseph is the ultimate goal for the Hornets. The city has been very kind to Emporia State recently.

In late March, the Emporia State women's basketball team won three games at the St. Joseph Civic Center and left as the Division II national champions.

Bredbenner said her players got to go two of the three games to cheer on the women's basketball team.

She's confident the softball team will receive the same kind of support from the community that the women's basketball team enjoyed.

“I think the support is a huge thing,” Bredbenner said. “I went to Wal-Mart yesterday and ran into three groups of people who said they listened to our games on the radio and followed on the web site.”

One thing is certain: the Hornets play very well at home. Emporia State is a perfect 16-0 at home this season.

“Being on our home field is really comfortable for us,” senior Linda Ketter said. “How we played on our home field this year just goes to show we love it here. We have a lot of fans who come out and support us.”

But it takes more than cheers to win games. The Hornets have the other important elements. They can hit, pitch and field.

As Ketter put it, the Hornets have the whole shebang.

The lineup is solid one through nine. Campbell leads the way, hitting .486 with 14 home runs. Angela Mahan also has 14 home runs and is batting .392. In all, seven of the hitters are batting over .300.

Emporia State has a .965 fielding percentage, committing just 61 errors in 60 games.

The pitching staff is led by sophomore Jennifer Heerey, who is 21-2 and freshman Paige Ladenburger, who is 18-5

“We have everything you can ask for,” Ketter said. “We can hit 1 through 9. Our defense rarely commits errors. Our pitching is just phenomenal even with them being so young. They have done a great job.”

Everything is set up for the Hornets to do well this weekend. They are taking care of their finals the first half of the week so they can focus on softball the latter part of the week.

Campbell likes the way everything is falling into place for the Hornets.

“I think we are coming together at the right time,” she said. “When we got in the conference tournament we really pulled together as a team and played as one. That's when you want to come together at the conference tournament.

“It's a whole new ball game. If we lose two games we are done. There is no tomorrow or next day. (Tuesday) when we go to practice it will be time to focus on playing Texas Woman's and trying to beat them, and after that move on to our next opponent.”

Bredbenner expects her team will be ready for the upcoming challenges.

“The team is fired up and excited,” she said. “They have a lot of passion. That's one thing I try to get out of our kids every year is passion and a never give-up attitude. I want them to go out every day and play hard.”