Patrick Lising
Coming out of pre-season with a 1-9 win-loss record, Pat Grennan, head coach of the Pierce College Softball team since 1999, remains optimistic about the coming season despite a tough pre-season.
“We’ve played some really good teams and I set that up that way so we’d go up against tough teams.”
“We split our first two games and went 1-1 and then we lost our last eight. But I expected that because we played some top-notch teams.”
“We play in a really tough conference, so I want all the girls to get ready.”
“We started conference yesterday and got beat, but I was very pleased with the way we played because it was one of the best teams around, College of the Canyons,” he said. “College of the Canyons, Glendale, next Tuesday against Citrus. So yeah, they’re all pretty tough.”
Despite being in a tough league, Coach Grennan found optimism in his team’s potential.
“We have a good pitcher, a good infield and we’re a little weak on the outfield so we’ve got to keep working on that,” he said. Pierce will once again be challenging for honors in the Western State Conference this season. The coach seemed optimistic over his team’s chances for this year, “It’s probably one of the better teams I’ve had here.
We take ‘baby-steps.’ We’ve got probably the best pitcher I have ever had. But the conference, the conference the gold is down a little bit this year so if we catch some breaks, OK, we come out of the other side three and four (Blue Division). I’m going to be pretty excited because that’s really tough.”
The team features some newcomers to the team, with the addition of 14 freshmen and two sophomores.
Among the newcomers to the team is Jamie Domine, captain of the team, who, like her coach, remains cautiously optimistic about the new season.
“Our season started off kind of rocky, but we’re finally getting into the groove of things. All of us are showing up to practice and it’s going to be a really good season.” The new captain went on to comment on the team’s strengths and possible weaknesses.
“Our strengths are our hitting for sure. We have a lot of power hitters. I would not say we have weaknesses, I would just say that we are more of building.”
Despite a tough preseason (1-9) and the team ‘building,’ the captain remained confident and positive that come the end of the pre-season, “We are going to go all the way.”
Coach Pat Grennan (left) and Jennifer Bowen (right) practice hard to escape their 1-9 preseason record . The team consists of 14 newcomers and two experienced returning players. Captain Jamie Domine looks to Coach Grennan for inspiration as they head into the new season. (Mary Meyer)