For many coaches, winning is the number one reason for optimism, even in the preseason. But Tuesday, Wichita State softball coach Kristi Bredbenner took a slightly different approach to the wins and losses of the preseason.

“The biggest positive I can take away from this is our losses,” she said. “I know that sounds absurd but when you win all eight games, there’s that false sense of ‘We’re good.’”

For any Shocker softball fan, it’s not difficult to see where Bredbenner is coming from. The Shockers went undefeated in the preseason last year, but failed to clinch a spot in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament at the conclusion of the regular season. 

Bredbenner is hoping some of the preseason losses will keep her team focused.

“I think this year was a little bit more of an eye opener and hopefully gets these girls to believe that they have to put the work in,” Bredbenner said. “We have to get better on all fronts and convince them to do it because the outcome wasn’t what they wanted it to be.”

The Shockers concluded their fall season with a doubleheader split against the Seminole State Trojans.

WSU won the second game 5-4 behind homeruns from Danika Miller and Megan McCracken. 

“We got more excited for the second game—the first game was a little bit of a mess,” senior outfielder Haley Temple said.

Bredbenner described herself as a “critical” person and pointed out errors in particular that her team needs to work on.

“Errors kill you and freebies kill you and we’ve got to have somebody that steps up,” she said.

However, she also attributed some of the mistakes to rust and some of her players playing different positions.

“Haley was going from second to short, Laura (Vickers) hadn’t been in the lineup since last spring and you had a freshman playing third base, so there will be some kinks,” she said.

There is plenty of optimism around the locker room. The team expects the lineup to be more potent than last year. 

Though that optimism won’t come without patience. The team has only three seniors, so growing pains are to be expected. 

But what the players love about their team so far is that everyone likes playing with one another.

“We have a good group of girls,” Temple said. “Everyone gets along really well and our chemistry is good and we all want to work really hard.”