Guest Post: JMU Softball Preview

Head coach Mickey Dean has quietly built JMU softball into a bit of a juggernaut. We’re far from experts on college softball, but thankfully Brian Hansen is. He put together this outstanding preview and offered to let us run it. We hope you enjoy it. 

As hard as it is to believe, what with the nearly two feet of snow that have fallen outside my window over the last two weeks, softball season is less than a week away. JMU opens up its 2016 campaign ranked 19th in the nation and begins the year playing in the UCF Knights Invitational in Orlando, Fla. That tournament features some tough opponents, but is highlighted by a showdown in No. 5 Alabama on Saturday afternoon.

This weekend ought to be the start of a really fun season. There are probably a dozen storylines that are going to make it a joy to follow this team, but for the time being, here are the things I think it best to know heading into the 2016 year.

The Senior Class

The Dukes graduated just one player for the 2015 team that went 48-10 and hosted an NCAA Regional. And while they are sure to miss both the consistency and leadership of Heather Kiefer, this year’s senior class should be able to overcome the absence of the three-time All-CAA selection.

Between the three of them, Erica Field, Jailyn Ford and Hannah Hayes have started 531 over the previous three years. That number is notable because it means that all three of them have been in the starting line up for each of the 177 games played by JMU over that span. It is quite an amazing feat to have such a success come from one recruiting class. It reminds me a lot of what Kenny Brooks was able to do with his first recruiting class at JMU of Meredith Alexis, Andrea Benvenuto, Shirley McCall and Lesley Dickinson.

I think most people are familiar with the contributions of Ford and Field, but may not be aware of just how good Hayes has been for Coach Dean and his staff. I don’t think there has been a season where she hasn’t had to fight off competition to earn a starting spot and each year she has won that battle and found her name on the lineup card on opening day. She’s improved her offensive production each year and grown into a true leader for her younger teammates.

It would be an easy argument to make that is is amongst the most successful classes that has come to JMU in any sport. It has been enjoyable to watch each of them grow up with the JMU softball program and I’ll bet they go out making a ton of noise nationwide.

Can’t lose if you don’t give up any runs

Even if JMU wasn’t return the best offense in the conference and one of the best in the country, it may not matter much because between the combination of Jailyn Ford and Megan Good, it is going to be awfully tough to score on the Dukes in 2016. The duo makes up one of the best pitching staffs in country as they have combined for three All-America honors and last year won 45 games and struck out nearly 391 batters over 330 innings. They complement each other well with Ford being a lefty with an impossible-to-track breaking ball and Good being a righty that can touch 70 miles per hour with her fastball.

Combine that with two-time CAA Defensive Player of the Year in catcher Erica Field, and JMU may just have the best battery combo in the country.

That schedule though …

No one was ever going to accuse Coach Dean of padding his schedule with easy wins, but just to make sure the fourth-year coach went out and schedule a dozy of a slate for 2015. This includes matchups with big-name powers like Alabama, Tennessee, Auburn, Oklahoma State, Arizona, Arizona State, Nebraska, Virginia Tech and North Carolina as well as games against top “mid-majors” like DePaul, UCF, BYU and East Carolina. This schedule will keep JMU up near the top of the RPI and the more the win, the higher they’ll be. Even more, it will have them ready for games against similar programs if/when Madison faces them in the NCAA tournament. This is the type of the schedule that will certainly help them secure an NCAA at-large bid if they cannot win the auto birth. It may even put them back in position to host another NCAA regional or Super Regional should the opportunity arise.

World Series or Bust

That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but I don’t think it is just happenstance that the schedule on JMUSports.com ends with the Women’s College World Series. Coach Dean has pretty publically declared that he wants to bring his team to Oklahoma City and this just might be his best shot to do it since he got to Harrisonburg.

The CAA is a bit of mystery after JMU this year. Hofstra always finds a way to compete, but this is the first year I am aware of that the Pride has more questions than answers in the pitching circle. Charleston, Elon, Towson, UNCW, Delaware and Drexel are all unknowns to me. Until more is known about the freshman classes and any transfers it is hard to predict who will be the four teams battling it out in the conference tournament come May.

The one thing that is known is that it sure should be fun to watch it unfold.