Ledford, Cale excited about season

By Pete Mollica

YOUNGSTOWN — Allyse Ledford begins her senior season with the Youngstown State softball team with a lot of different things happening.

Because she is one of just two seniors on the roster, the Akron native knows that she will have to become more of a leader and teacher, especially since the Penguins probably will have a host of new starters including four or five freshmen.

Ledford also comes into the season with a new position and a brand new coaching staff.

Last season, she played both shortstop and second base with the Penguins, and this year she is moving to third base.

“I haven’t played third base since I was 14-years old, almost 10 years, but it’s coming back and I’m making good progress there,” she said.

“With all the young players, I know that I’m going to be called upon to help out the new players because they really don’t have any idea of just what it takes to compete at this level,” she said.

Ledford said that she saw a lot of progress from the younger players over the fall workouts, but there is still a lot of work to do.

“We competed well in the fall, but the Horizon League will be a whole lot tougher,” she said. “We’ve been working very hard, six days a week, getting ready, and although we still have a long way to go, we are getting there.”

“This group, although it is very young, has really started to come together as a team,” she said. “We’ve spent a lot of time together both on and off the field, and you can just see things starting to jell.”

She also is pretty excited working with new head coach Brian Campbell.

“He’s just been great, and he’s helped me so much not only on the field, but with my studies,” she said. “He’s taught us so much in a short time.”

Ledford has been a starter all three of her previous seasons with the Penguins. As a freshman, she made 44 starts at second base. She was named the Most Outstanding Defensive Player in the Horizon League Tournament, where she handled 25 chances in the field without an error and batted .556 with a home run.

Her sophomore season, she started 33 games at shortstop and second base, and last year made 19 starts in 21 games.

Though Ledford is the veteran returning player in the field, junior Cheryl Cale is the top returning pitcher for the Penguins.

Cale, a Columbus native, led the team with an 8-9 record a year ago along with a 4.34 earned run average in 121 innings and had 11 complete games in 14 starts.

Cale said that she needs to be ready to step up this season when called upon.

“I don’t think that I was always ready last year, and I want to make sure that when they need me, I’m ready,” she said.

Cale said that she knows what she needs to do to make herself a better pitcher this season.

“I need to have control of all my pitches,” she said. “I know that I’m not going to overpower a lot of hitters, so I have to know what to throw to get outs. If my sinker is working, they’ll hit a lot of ground balls to third, and if the change-up is working, then they’ll pop up a lot.

She also is excited about the Penguins’ new coach.

“He’s been really great and I think that he’s made this a much more disciplined team,” she said. “Not that we didn’t respect our former coaches, but we really have respect for him and the records and championships that he brought with him. We hope that he’ll take us to a few of our own.

Ledford and Cale are excited about the upcoming season, which gets under way Feb. 21 at George Mason in Fairfax, Va.

“Just to get out of the cold weather will be a treat in itself,” Ledford said.