Bulldogs Softball Season on the Horizon

Summer sports will officially be underway when the Hampton-Dumont-CAL softball team takes the diamond for their first game on Tuesday, May 27 at 7:30 p.m. versus North Butler at home. The Bulldogs have had a very similar record each of the past three seasons. They were 7-18 in 2022, 8-17 in 2023, and 7-17 in 2024. Head coach of the Bulldogs softball team Kelsey Enslin discussed how her team can take a step forward and improve their record from the past few seasons. 

“We talked about it and we just need to clean up our defense,” said Enslin. “There have been games the last couple of years with several errors. I think even five to six sometimes and you can’t win any games with that kind of defense so we really focused on sharpening ourselves up at practice.”

The Bulldogs will have a very young team, much like last year, as they will only be losing three seniors and the majority of the team will be underclassmen. This year's team will only feature two seniors, Mallory Rieken and Charlee Morton, but those seniors will be a huge part of the team, said coach Enslin. She talked about how their experience in not just softball, but other sports as well, will be a big asset for the team. 

“We have our two seniors this year, Mallory Rieken and Charlee Morton,” she said. “They’ve played a lot of athletics and they definitely lead by their actions. Charlee knows what it means to work hard as you can see in her success in track. Mallory is just like a natural leader, so we really have been blessed with really good senior leadership for this season.”

Although the team will be young, as last year's team was made up of mostly freshmen and eight graders, the younger players have got a lot of experience getting significant playing time at the varsity level. 

“It’s always different when you come out into the varsity level,” she said. “So we’re looking at some of those kids like Addison Aalbers, who has been playing since she was an eighth grader. They come back a year later and they have gained so much maturity wise, but also those kids playing other sports. You know they have gained experience, they learn more composure.”

After having three straight seasons around the same record, the Bulldogs will look to improve their defense in hopes to take the next step, improve their record and make it further in the substate playoffs. After their first game of the season versus North Butler the Bulldogs will travel to Nashua-Plainfield two days later on Thursday, May 29 at 7:30 p.m. for their first road game of the season.