Returning Experience has Cyclone SB Excited for New Season

Returning Experience has Cyclone SB Excited for New Season –

(5-26-26) – With a year of their system under their belts, Harlan Community softball is looking to make waves this season.

After a 7-24 campaign last year, Coach Nolan Heese knows his team is trending in the right direction.

“We are returning every single starter and we have a strong 8th grade group coming up as well that some of them are going to try to make an impact right away,” said Heese on Tuesday. “Everyone coming back is kind of a nice feeling. (We’re) just trying to build off of last year and keep getting better as we go.”

The offense was solid a season ago, hitting .256, accumulating nearly 200 hits, and scoring 153 runs as junior 3rd baseman Taylor Heese looks to take another step forward after a season where she led the Cyclones with a .322 average, 4 homers, and 23 RBI.

“She has a really nice swing,” Coach Heese said. “Obviously, she has a lot of power. One thing that we've kind of just been working with her is just selection and being a smarter hitter, like not chasing that random rise ball, especially early in count, stuff like that.”

Avery Mann was also an offensive force as a sophomore last season, driving in 21 runs while also hitting .289, while also providing solid defense at shortstop. Coach Heese says that while she’s a great overall player, they wanted her to add some strength to here game.

“I know she's put in a lot of time in the weight room this past year, and that'll kind of help her offensively to find those gaps more often, put more pressure on the defense. Early in the season last year, she had a lot of great line drives that just happened to be right at people and kind of saw hits starting to fall more as the season went on. So, hopefully she can continue that and hopefully some of that strength training will help her do that as well.”

Pitching has been a concern for Harlan Community softball the past few seasons and last year was not different, the team sported a 7.08 ERA. But Heese notes that his hurlers are maturing and getting better year after year.

“While we didn't necessarily have great numbers, if you compare them to what they had the year before, they are getting better, so hopefully they just keep making that jump.”

Rebekah Christensen has impressed Heese with how she’s come into this new season and how she’s responded to working with Assistant Coack Kellie Lynch.

“She's throwing the ball a lot harder. She's got more movement on her pitches and she's pitching more aggressively, like trying to hit her spots, get that inside/outside rather than just having the mentality of, oh, I have to throw strikes and kind of putting it down the middle type of thing. So, she's made a huge jump. She's looking like our number one right now.”

Cyclone softball will take those first steps forward when they open the season on the road against Creston Tuesday.

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