Article by Luke Paider. Photo by the St. Cloud State Athletic Department/Nathaly Delgado.
The Huskies had an amazing non-conference season coming away with a 21-7 record, and while they have cooled off that pace in NSIC play they have still maintained a winning record. In their opening nine contests they have earned a 5-4 record.
St. Cloud State will be back in action this weekend with their first chance in 2025 to see a couple of familiar foes.
The competition will start on Saturday with two games against Southwest Minnesota State. The Mustangs will enter the Husky Dome with a respectable 22-16 record, but on a bit of a downswing having lost their last four games. They hold a 4-8 record in the NSIC.
The squad will be led into battle by a pair of Abbys. Those being Abby Russell and Abby Boxrud. Russell leads the team in batting average and OPS with .364 and .871 marks respectively. Boxrud also puts up impressive numbers with a .333 batting average and 14 walks.
The Huskies will be countering those bats with Macey Clark and Emma Eickhoff. Clark enters the weekend with an earned run average of 2.09 and 10 complete games. While Eickhoff is coming in with an astounding 11-0 record and a .253 opponents batting average. In Eickhoff’s previous two appearances she’s thrown 10 innings and only allowed one earned run in wins over Bemidji State and Minnesota Crookston.
Offensively the Huskies are led by Brooke Holmes and Reese Holzhueter who are both batting over .400 for the season and have maintained an OPS of 1.000 each. St. Cloud also has a very deep lineup with six different Huskies hitting over .300 so far this season.
The Huskies had a chance to flex their muscles in their last game against Bemidji State putting up nine runs in a matchup that only went 5 innings. Although, leading up to the matches against the Beavers, St. Cloud had fallen into a bit of a slump. Only managing four total runs in the previous three games including being shut out twice by Augustana and Wayne State.
Morgan Honeycutt applauded her team’s unfailing mindset, she said, “every pitch is a new game,” playing by this rule gives them the ability to get out of slumps when they face them.
Later, on Sunday, the Huskies will take on Concordia-St. Paul for the first time this season. The Golden Bears are currently 16-21 but have fared better in NSIC play with an 8-4 record. Offensively Concordia will attack Clark and Eickhoff with a top duo of Sydney Pelzer and Alexis Monty.
Pelzer leads her team in batting average, slugging percentage, OPS, doubles, homeruns, and RBI’s. Pelzer can be found at the top of the Golden Bears list on almost any offensive stat. Her partner, Monty leads Concordia with 18 stolen bases to go along with her impressive .372 average and .996 OPS.
The Huskies pitching staff will have their hands full keeping these two Bears contained, but what about Concordia’s staff? The Golden Bears have a three person rotation split between Emmy Bowne, Tatum Dunlavy, and Erica McCullough. Bowne holds the best ERA of the bunch at 3.56 and leads her team with 41 strikeouts. Dunlavy on the other hand holds the best record at 7-6 while throwing nine complete games on the season.
It’ll be an exciting weekend of softball at the Husky Dome as the Huskies look to continue their strong start to the year.
This weekend the St. Cloud squad will have the chance to tie the 30 win mark that they finished with last season. They will need to sweep the weekend, but with the level of play they’ve shown themselves to be capable of doing just that.
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