Mary Hart, USU Eastern Sports Information Contributor:

Last year the Lady Eagles softball team finished 4th in the Scenic West Athletic Conference with a conference record of 13-22 and an overall record of 16-34.

This season is the first season for new head coach Shelby Shurtliff. Coach Shurtliff comes to us from Santaquin, UT. She spent two years a Salt Lake Community College where she red shirted her freshman year and after that she helped the Bruins win SWAC and regionals, during post season she also made it to the National Championship where they lost to Butler. She then went on to transfer to USU Eastern to play softball where she was an all-conference infielder. She then went on the help coach the Eagles the following year as an assistant before she was given the head coach job.

Shurtliff is assisted by Chad Blackhurst who comes to us from Pleasant Grove, Utah and Mary Hart who comes from Charlotte, North Carolina. Blackhurst is on his fourth year helping out the Eagles and Hart is on her second year.

This year’s team they have four returning sophomores: Tanzie Gasu, Regan Bossow, Nyah DeRyke, and Alicia Cruz. The rest of the team consists of 13 freshman and 1 transfer sophomore.  The freshman are: Jenna Sutliff, Madie Luck, Oakley Small, Shakel Alofipo, Shayna Alofipo, Emma Marchant, Gigi Canales, Kayle Russel, Marisa Bowman, Minerva Cruz, Katie Schaugaard, Grace Callister, and Ronni Williams, the transfer sophomore is Madi Hadlock.

The Eagles started pre-season play last weekend in Henderson, NV and beat the 16th ranked team in the nation, Yavapai College, and two other good programs, Eastern Arizona College and Central Arizona College.  They ended the weekend with 4 wins and only 1 loss. They will be heading down to Yuma, AZ this weekend to participate in the Great Western Shootout and this will be their last tournament before they start conference play on February 28 against Snow College down in Ephraim, Utah.

“After the outcome of our first tournament, I am ecstatic for what this season holds! We have so much going for us already and there is still so much untapped potential. Our mentality is 1% better here (meaning practice, conditioning, and weights), so that we are 1% better at all that’s in between (school, family, work, life). This year is going to be a good one and I can’t wait” says sophomore Tanzie Gasu.

“I’m very excited for this upcoming season. These girls are very special and demand greatness of themselves. It’s very special to watch as a coach. In Vegas, out of the four years that we have gone to that tournament, this was the best year yet. We held on to leads to win and we came back in two of those wins and battled. There is no limit for this team and I’m excited for the battle it will be in conference this year” says head coach Shelby Shurtliff.

The Eagles will hit the field February 6 in Yuma, AZ. The first game will be at 1:00 p.m. and will be streamed live on USU Eastern Softball facebook page.