Last year, the Kent State softball team ended its season as the eighth team in the Mid-American Conference.
Despite the above .500 overall record, the team struggled mightily in conference play, finishing the season 11-15 against MAC opponents. Kent State was one of five teams with an above .500 overall record, but the Flashes missed out on the MAC tournament because other teams had better conference records.
According to MAC preseason polls, Kent State is predicted to miss out on the postseason again, as Kent State is voted to finish ninth out of 11 teams.
The Flashes will have the advantage of having a coach who is no longer a rookie. In her second year at Kent State and 12th year of coaching experience overall, coach Jessica O’Donnell is already adjusting to a new season.
“Continuing to learn how to play the game at this level, and get everybody on the same page has been the biggest adjustment because, before, they had been playing together for years,” she said.
One of the biggest adjustments O’Donnell will have to make is producing without infielder Julia Mazanec.
Last season, she led the team with a .391 batting average and 59 hits.
Another player the team will be without this season is catcher Bri Despines, who was a sophomore last season. She earned All-MAC Second-Team honors last year for her performance with Kent State.
She filled the stat sheet with a .338 batting average, .898 OPS, 53 hits, three home runs and 28 RBIs.
Filling in for her at catcher this season will be Maddy Miklesh. She did not appear in a game last season, but so far this season, she has a .167 batting average, two hits and one RBI.
“I don’t really think about what we have lost, I look at it as what we’ve gained,” O’Donnell said. “We’ve done a good job trying to recruit and bring in people. I’m just excited for the team that we have in place.”
With a lot of players not coming back to the team, the Flashes will have a new look. As O’Donnell said, the team has two freshmen, eight transfers and seven returners.
“When you have that much of a group that comes in, I think it’s really important that they get to know each other, build trust, learn how to play with each other and understand,” she said.
Even though the team has many new faces, the team is off to a good start with team building to start the campaign.
“I think we’ve made tremendous strides in team building and getting to learn from each other,” O’Donnell said. “Getting them accustomed to the Kent State way and mixing them in with the team and our culture has really been the hardest thing.”
Kent State still has some returning seniors for the team who will likely serve as leaders for the freshmen and transfers.
Those include utility players Savannah Wing and Delaney Robeson.
Last season, Wing hit for a .310 batting average with 18 doubles, four home runs and 38 RBIs.
Meanwhile, Robeson had a .242 batting average while hitting six doubles, two triples, five home runs and 27 RBIs in 128 at-bats.
To start off the 2025 season, Wing, Robeson and the Flashes traveled to Buies Creek, N.C. to play in the Camel Stampede tournament.
The team participated in five games and faced off against three opponents: East Tennessee State, Campbell and UMass.
After all the games, Kent State went 2-3 on the weekend.
In the first matchup of the season, Kent State took ETSU to an extra inning showdown.
As the game reached the seventh inning, the game was knotted at 1-1. In each of the next four innings, each team scored one run apiece, so the game moved to the 12th inning in a 5-5 deadlock.
KSU scored two runs in the bottom of the 11th to take the game 7-6.
Kent State took three losses in a row from there. In its back-to-back matchups with Campbell, the Flashes allowed 14 runs while only scoring seven.
Kent State took a late 4-2 advantage after the top of the sixth inning in the first game, but Campbell tacked on three runs in the bottom half of the inning, and the Flashes could not get back, losing the game 5-4.
In the second game, it was less of a fight, as KSU fell behind 7-0 early. The team added runs in the fourth and sixth inning, but it was not enough to overpower Campbell’s nine runs scored on the day.
ETSU got its revenge on KSU in the following matchup, as the team rode a three-run second inning and a two-run fifth to a 5-3 victory over the Flashes.
To close out the tournament, KSU hammered UMass in the second inning with an eight-run outburst. UMass kept fighting, scoring runs in more innings than the Flashes.
KSU only scored in two innings while the Minutemen scored in four of the seven innings, but KSU held on for the 10-9 win.
“Our resiliency really, really impressed me,” O’Donnell said. “We didn’t get shut out of any games with our ability to come back when we were down.”
Robeson shined for the Flashes over the weekend with a .667 batting average, two doubles and six RBIs.
“Delaney Robeson had an amazing weekend this weekend for us,” O’Donnell said. “She’s a senior, and that’s a different role. I‘ve been super impressed with her resiliency. We moved Robeson over to shortstop yesterday, which was not a position that she has played here at Kent or really practiced a ton, but I just love where her glove work is at right now and her ability to lead. So, why not put her in a leadership role on the field?”
The Flashes’ pitching struggled to start the season. The staff allowed 32 runs and 46 hits over the tournament. The team allowed an average of over six runs per game, and over nine hits per game to start the season.
“I think that our pitching staff has to go to work this week,” O’Donnell said. “We have to tighten up the defense, and we have to clean up the pitching a little bit. I think our pitchers need to work on hitting their spots more.”
One of the best performing pitchers of the tournament was freshman Ella Johnson. She pitched for 11.2 innings, allowing 12 hits, five earned runs, 12 walks, 10 strikeouts and has a 3.00 ERA.
She neither won nor lost any game she appeared in over the weekend, so she has a 0-0 record still.
Redshirt sophomore pitcher Kendal Leitner had her first collegiate home run at Kent State, and the only home run of the weekend on Saturday.
“Kendal Leitner, offensively, did really well,” O’Donnell said. “She also pitches for us. She was super clutch at the plate.”
While playing designated hitter, and later pitcher in the same game against ETSU Saturday, Leitner hit a solo shot to give the Flashes a 2-0 lead in the first inning.
She made relief appearances in games, and had 1.1 scoreless innings with three strikeouts.
“Pitching wise, I thought she kept us in the game, and just really did a good job hitting her spot,” O’Donnell said.
Over the weekend, the KSU relief pitching staff allowed 12 runs in the sixth inning or later, which led to losses in some cases.
The team also allowed 28 walks in the five games.
“We gave up way too many walks this weekend, and in my mind, walks are runs,” O’Donnell said. “ I just felt that we gave up way too many free bases on the pitching side, so we have to clean it up there, and just being consistent with hitting our spots.”
Looking ahead, O’Donnell would like to see more production from the offensive side of things, as the team scored more than four runs only twice in the five-game set.
The team won both games it scored over four runs, and lost all three games it scored four or less runs.
“Every person on the team has to want to figure out how we can put runners on, move them over and score them,” O’Donnell said.
As the 50th season of Kent State softball rolls on, the Flashes will play at the Battle at the Beach event in Conway, S.C. next.
KSU will compete Friday through Sunday, playing in five games against four different opponents.
The team will take on Marist in the first and last games of the event. In between, the team will take on Towson Friday, Notre Dame Saturday and Coastal Carolina Saturday.
With the five-game slate on the plate for the Flashes, the team will look to take advantage of its strengths, and one has been clearly identified: energy.
“I think this team is really unique with our energy,” O’Donnell said. “They genuinely love to play the game. I think if you come and watch our team play, one thing is very obvious, it’s that we’re going to out-energize every team that we play. They’re just a lot of energy, and they love being there. You can tell that they just love the game, and that’s really what this is about.”
Emily Lowen is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].