Issue date: 10/28/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Samantha Poulin freshmen Amber Roszkos controls the game from behind home plate. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Samantha Poulin Coach Kathy Strahan talks to members of the softball team. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Samantha Poulin Second base runner Emily McCormick leads off as the pitcher releases the ball. [Click to enlarge]

Collegiate sports require dedication, even in the offseason. Teams have conditioning, practice, weight-training and, in some cases, scrimmages and exhibition leagues.

Sacramento State softball takes part in these activities - most notably, a winter softball league.

However, head coach Kathy Strahan has trouble labeling it as a traditional sports league.

"You can't really call it a league, I guess, in the term that there's a set group of teams that keep playing," she said. "It's organized, but doesn't count toward our overall win-loss record for the year."

Strahan likened it to what Major League Baseball teams go through in March.

"It'd be like spring training," Strahan said. "We don't have spring training in the spring."

The Hornets have no spring training because Sac State's regular season takes place during the spring, beginning Feb. 13 and ending May 9.

Strahan said scores are kept and there are umpires, but winter ball is basically a way to have eight scrimmage games in the offseason.

Sac State second baseman Jessica Abeila said hitting off live pitching is one of the biggest benefits of winter ball.

"We get to see the ball off the bat, on the infield," Abeila said. "And we get the feel of the competition and the game speed."

Abelia is a transfer student from Sonoma State.

Carlos said she finds the league beneficial because it helps the team improve and builds unity.

"It allows us to see where we need to go individually, and as a team, to build chemistry and get together with all the new (women)," she said.

Strahan said the league is a great way for the players to build chemistry and help the first-year players get acclimated to Division I softball.

"It's absolutely huge," Strahan said. "If we didn't have fall ball, it would just be chaotic. It gives us a chance to get the new players out to try to learn the system; get the pitchers in sync and in a groove and just establish a team way of doing things and find out what our chemistry is."

Strahan said, out of her 19 players, nine of them have no Division I experience. Of the remaining 10 players, four of them have had regular playing time in the past.

Jan Schefkowitz, CSU Stanislaus head coach, said the team is just looking to get quality at-bats and play well in hopes that it will carry over to the spring.

Strahan said the only significant change that has been made since she has been coaching the Hornets is the limitation on the number of games a university is allowed to play.

The NCAA also has limitations on how much a team can participate in organized drills, practices and scrimmages during its offseason. Strahan said it is limited to approximately six weeks - for good reason.

"There's an important piece that needs to be in place for the student-athlete: the chance to experience college," Strahan said. "That's enough time for us to do what we need to do."

Strahan said competition is open to any four-year school that wishes to participate and Sac State has participated in winter ball in each of Strahan's 18 years as head coach.

Sac State finished its eight-game winter ball schedule with a doubleheader Saturday at UOP and another doubleheader Sunday at Cal.

Shefkowitz said the league is valuable to the team's advancement.

"We're getting good experience against good competition," she said.


Dustin Nosler can be reached at dnosler@statehornet.com

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