CREDIT: FANSHAWE ATHLETICS
Kady Hawkins been a strong asset to the women's softball team this season; she helped the team secure their playoff spot on Oct. 13 with one homerun, three RBIs and went two for three with three runs scored.

In only their second year of the program, the Fanshawe women’s softball team has made it to playoffs.

The playoff spot was clinched on Oct. 13 in aConestoga College that saw the Falcons sweep the Condors, the first with a score of 6-2 and the second with a score of 11-3. “[Oct. 13] was our last home game, we had a lot of people watching, it was a great feeling, backing up your pitcher and you look around and everyone is smiling, we just knew that we were doing awesome,” said Kady Hawkins, who plays third base for the Falcons.

Hawkins not only got her second homerun of the season in the game against Conestoga, she also contributed three runs batted in (RBIs) and went two for three, with three runs scored.

According to Hawkins, it was during tryouts that she knew this year was going to be different.

“At tryouts this year it was a different mentality, we had a couple of veterans out there who made sure that everyone had a good attitude.”

From the game against Western University onwards, the team began to mesh together.

“It’s great because we have a 29-year-old on the team, we have 22-year-olds and one girl is 17, so it’s crazy to think that a team with this kind of age gap can really mesh together, but we just did.”

Head coach for the softball team, Catherine Arthur, attributes the Oct. 13 win and the playoff spot to the girls being able to grow as a team.

“This is a big deal, everyone is super, we had a great core come back from last year, including a couple of our OCAA all-stars and we had a really good recruiting class that came in and complimented the rest of the team really well.”

Arthur spotlights the team pitchers, Alanna Gilmour and Lydia Kalbfleisch, on how their pitching kept opponent bats in check.

During the game against Conestoga, Kalbfleisch led the attack with three RBIs, three hits and one run.

And with the talented softball team coming together this season, they have secured themselves a ticket to the 2015 OCAA Provincial Championships on Oct. 23 and 24 at Durham College.

“Everyone is so excited and now that we have made the play-offs our goal is to be number one,” Arthur said.

Currently, the softball team is tied for first in the OCAA standings with St. Clair Saints.

As for the playoffs, Hawkins said the girls plan to put their best cleat forward.

“We are going to bring a lot of rumble, you can tell that everybody is in it to win it,” Hawkins said. “We are so competitive at such a high level, honestly I couldn’t do it without this team of girls behind my back.”