Give me a recap of the season.

Emily King: We won a lot fewer games than we did last year.
Cheryl Lindsly: But we had a lot of close games.
EK: We played a lot of good softball.
Katie Pieplow: We couldn’t finish. That’s probably our biggest problem. We would fight, but we couldn’t actually get it done. I think we had the same problem last year— we’d have big sixth innings then fall short.

What was the high point of the season?

KP: I though our Allegheny games were good. Especially in that first game.
EK: I thought that our Denison game was good too, since we didn’t have a lot of people.
CL: Denison tends to be one of the best teams in the conference, and we came out and played some of our best softball with only nine players.

 I heard something about many people playing new positions. What’s the deal with that?

CL: Emily moved to catcher this year. She’s been a pitcher or shortstop in the past.
KP: A good pitcher and a good shortstop.
EK: Yeah, we had a lot of people either injured or sick this year.
CL: So many that people had to be moved around to positions that our coach never thought that they would actually play. All of our pitchers ended up playing in the field, and they were great at it.
EK: We usually don’t do anything but pitch.
CL: They’re divas.
EK: We just pitch… don’t mess with us.

Do you guys have any pre- or post-game rituals?

EK: Pregame we have a chant…
KP: A battle cry.
EK: Yeah, a battle cry that we do where everyone is in a circle and me and Cheryl are in the middle, and we yell and they yell back.
KP: Before every game we have a mini team meeting. After we do our warm-up routine, just the players with no coaches there talk about what we’re going to do in the game. Just a mini inspirational speech by Cheryl before the game.

What are your predictions for next season?

EK: I think next season will be what this season should have been. This season, with so many people out of position, sick or injured, we never really had the time to come together as a team.
CL: We’re only losing one person, which is a good thing.
KP: That’s big. Coming back next year as a team is going to be huge.

Tell me one thing about the team that no one would expect.
EK: We eat like a football team.
CL: You don’t think that people expect that?
KP: I think that they would expect us to eat a lot, but I don’t think that they know the scale.
EK: I can pound down a bag of mega-stuffed Oreos and a jar of peanut butter in about half an hour, no problem.
CL: We’ll be in the library and we’ll be the only people with food on our table.
KP: A lot of food. Softball is an eating sport.
CL: Exactly. You play, you hit, then you go into the dugout and you take a little snack.

If you guys had an intramural softball team what would it be called?

KP: The pizza eaters.
CL: No.
EK: Sun’s out guns out.
CL: Sun’s out guns out.
KP: Sun’s out stomach out.

How badly would you crush the competition?

EK: It would be sad for them. I might start to feel bad.
CL: I wouldn’t. We need some wins.
KP: We need a morale boost.

What animal captures the essence of the team?

CL: A lion.
EK: I was going to say tiger.
CL: It’s ferocious.
EK: It looks fun and cuddly and fluffy…
KP: We need a derpier animal than that — polar bear?
CL: Maybe a lion or a tiger, because it’s sneakily quick.
KP: Lions sleep 20 hours a day!