Brainerd Softball In Midseason Form

The Brainerd Warriors softball team is off to a 5-0 start this season. The offense has been hot, scoring 55 runs over that span, but it’ll be their defense that takes them to the next level.

“I have no doubt that we can hit the ball, and run the bases, and score runs,” says Shane Jordan, the team’s head coach. “I’m more interested in how well this team can play defense.”

“Our pitchers are throwing strikes, doing great, and getting ahead quick,” says senior infielder Lexi Roby. “We’re always behind them to back them up.”

They return seven starters from last season, and the team says they’re as close as they’ve ever been.

“I think the chemistry is what’s holding us together,” says senior catcher Elaina Christiansen. “Even if we make a bad play or something, there’s always a teammate to hold us up.”

“It’s so nice to still have that chemistry with the girls that we’ve been playing with forever, it feels like,” says Roby. “We’ve gotten a lot closer this year with everyone, so that’s really helping us.”

The team has also added some new faces, a trio of 8^th graders who are already making an impact.

“It just really makes us a whole,” says Jordan. “We have experience, we have senior leadership, our junior class is really good, and then you bring in those 8^th graders and it’s fun to have young kids that are talented as well.”

“I know they were a little bit nervous at first, but they’ve definitely shown but they can do,” says Christiansen.

The Warriors have a fitting motto given the long winter and hope to use it to propel them late into postseason play.

“Coach has this motto of us being a snowstorm,” says Christiansen. “So instead of one individual snowflake, we all come together to make a snowstorm to plow over the other team.”