Last Saturday, the softball team faced off at home against Kenyon College in a doubleheader. This doubleheader was their Strikeout Cancer Game, a fundraising event that raises money for cancer research, as well as their chance at breaking the team’s program record for wins in a season. 

The Strikeout Cancer Game helped raise money for the Strikeout Cancer Foundation, a recent addition to the Randy Shaver Cancer Fund family. As stated on their website, “The mission of the Randy Shaver Cancer Research and Community Fund is to assist and support the cancer community in Minnesota by funding research, prevention, treatment and other programs relating to the cancer community’s principal needs.” The donations help fund technology and tools that enhance early detection of cancer, new programs promoting research to help prevent cancer relapses, and other cancer research projects. 

Thanks to fundraising events including the April 18 game at Oberlin, Strikeout Cancer has raised over $60,000, contributing to the over $13 million that the Randy Shaver Cancer Fund has raised since its formation in 2003.

This past Saturday was the second year in a row that Oberlin softball has played a Strikeout Cancer game, as Head Coach Julie Pratt has made it a point to have a cancer awareness game every year throughout her entire coaching career. 

“Cancer affects so many [in] so many different ways, and [raising] awareness is just our contribution to the real-life obstacles that many people face,” Pratt wrote to the Review.

After not scheduling a Strikeout Cancer game during her first two years at Oberlin, Pratt was inspired to renew the tradition in order to support one player’s mother during her battle with breast cancer, dedicating the game to her.

While the importance of raising money and awareness for cancer has stayed consistent from last year to now, the importance of the game result was amplified this year. A win in one of the two games would secure the softball program records for wins in a season, with nine games still to go after the Kenyon doubleheader. 

In the first game of the doubleheader, Oberlin jumped out to an early lead thanks to a monster second inning, where six runs were batted in to give the Yeowomen a 6–3 advantage. They held onto this lead throughout the next five innings, defeating the Owls 8–5. They secured the record with the win, despite dropping the second game of the day. The Yeowomen advanced to 15–13 on the season.

This record-breaking season becomes even more impressive when compared to the previous one, as they ended last season with only two wins and 31 losses. According to Pratt, this turnaround can be attributed to an effective mix of veteran leadership and young talent.

“Our freshman class has added a huge amount of talent to our roster, and it shows in the stats and in our wins,” Pratt wrote. “We also had a captains committee led by a retired Army veteran who led our four seniors to run this team with confidence and leadership! Both of these things have been difference maker[s] in the 2026 season.”

This combination’s success is perhaps best seen in the Yeowomen’s ability to steal bases, something that they have clearly taken pride in and execute at a nationally spectacular level. As of April 16, Oberlin is sixth in all of Division III in stolen bases, with 123 in only 26 games. During other points in the season, they sat at the top of the list, even leading the entire NCAA across all divisions in stolen bases per game at one point in March. 

“Running the bases has always been the fun part of the game for me as a coach,” Pratt wrote. “We take pride [in] stealing and pushing the extra back. Speed is important, but understand[ing] the game when you are on the bases has the ability to change the game!”

This year’s freshman class has been impactful on the team’s success in many aspects of the game. First-years Hannah O’Connor, Anjali Singh, and Connor Fogarty are all batting above a .350 average, with O’Connor leading the entire team with an average of .405. 

Singh’s baserunning has been especially impressive and historic in its own right, since in her first season in the Crimson and Gold, she has already placed her name in the record book. Her 30 stolen bases and 36 runs are both the most by a player in a single season in the program’s history. Additionally, she has only been thrown out three times while trying to steal, embodying the aforementioned mix of speed and understanding. 

While this year’s class is talented, they are equally hardworking, said Pratt.

“They are talented, but more importantly, they are workers,” she wrote. “They do extra work all the time. They like to play softball, and it shows.”

Softball looks to continue building upon their record this weekend as they play back-to-back doubleheaders on Saturday against Denison University and Sunday against the University of Olivet, with both doubleheaders taking place at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.