From the Ann Arbor News comes this article, “Senior class fuels rise of EMU softball Eagles have come a long way since 2002.” Here’s some of the opening paragraphs:
Five years ago, Eastern Michigan’s softball program couldn’t have been further from the NCAA Tournament.
The Eagles lost 28 games in 2002 and 38 more a year later in Karen Baird’s first season as coach.
improved, making the Mid-American Conference tournament a season ago after a seven-year absence. The Eagles won that championship for the first time last weekend to secure their first NCAA Tournament berth.
The meteoric rise of the Eastern (27-20) continues at 7 p.m. Friday with an opening-round game at the University of Michigan.
“At that point (in 2003), I could never imagine this,” Baird said with a loud chuckle. “That was an extremely hard year. Once we got the type of players we wanted in the program, they started embracing Eastern Michigan softball and taking a lot of pride in it.”
Again, big congrats to the EMU softball team. And hey–maybe Baird could do a little coaching in Welch?
Congrats to the Baird and the softball team. Quite an accomplishment.
“Once we got the type of players we wanted in the program, they started embracing Eastern Michigan softball and taking a lot of pride in it.”
Sounds like they hit upon the winning formula, no?
Beat those Wolverines!