C-GCC softball signs seven

GREENPORT — Columbia-Greene Community College softball coach Peter Dedrick welcomed seven new players into the Twins’ family at the team’s signing day ceremony on Tuesday.

Signing their Letters of Intent were local high school standouts Hannah Maywin and Claire Filak of Saugerties, Hailey Beaumont of Hudson, Kelsey Taylor of Catskill, Ashley DeKraai of Ichabod Crane, Maddy Osborn of Coxsackie-Athens and Holly Kleinmeier of Cairo-Durham.

“I’m extremely lucky that I can go in my own backyard and pick out players that can play at an extremely high level,” Dedrick said. “We’ve seen this area produce players that can play all over, so it’s my job to try to keep everyone home and hopefully they want to stay home a couple more years. The local talent here is great and that leads to our success.”

The Twins, coming off a 17-15 season, lost seven players to graduation, including Rachel Nielsen, Lauren Bowes, Anna Davies, Tori Popp and Catherine Gomm, prompting Dedrick to bring in a large class of talented newcomers.

“We had to target somewhat of a big number this year because we lost a decent amount of sophomores and Rachel Nielsen moving on as a freshman,” Dedrick explained. “With the schedule that we play now, in terms of the number of games we play, we wanted depth, so seven is a good number. Mix those new players in with the returnees and I’m excited. We have players from winning programs, they know how to win and play in travel organizations that win, so we want to bring that type of winning mentality into our program.”

Of all the departures, losing Nielsen will no doubt be felt the most. In her only season with the Twins, the Taconic Hills graduate compiled a 12-9 record on the mound and batted .373 with a home run, 25 RBI and a team-high 10 doubles.

“Losing Rachel hurts,” Dedrick said. “Pitching in softball has a lot to do with winning and she’s going to be tough to replace, not only on the mound, but also in the batter’s box. She had a great year for us last year, but we have Kaylee Hoffman returning and we brought in two pitchers who can give us depth at that position. Now we just have to work on the intricacies of locations and all of that. I feel confident everywhere else. We return our catcher, out shortstop, our third baseman, outfielders and what not. It’s just a matter of finding the right spot for everyone and getting it done.”

Dedrick is excited about what the new class brings to the table, a class that includes DeKraai, who helped Ichabod Crane win the state Class B softball championship this spring. DeKraai batted .323 with 10 RBI for the Riders.

“We’ve been looking at some of these players for awhile now,” he said. “Ashley DeKraai played on great travel ball organizations and just played on a state championship-winning team, so obviously comes from a winning mentality. Strong outfielder, versatile, can pitch and do a couple of other things, can swing the bat.

“Claire Filak and Hannah Maywin from Saugerties played against great competition. Hannah is a catcher, which you need great depth at. Claire is a middle infielder and can play pretty much anywhere in the infield. We’re excited to have those two.

“Maddy Osborn is also a catcher. Kelsey Taylor had a pretty solid year for Catskill this year and got second team All-Patroon Conference. We have Hailey Beaumont, outfielder-center fielder. She has tremendous range, and something we lacked last year is speed and she is a very fast person and can swing it a little bit, too. And we have Holly Kleinmeier, who does a little bit of everything — catch, play outfield and pitch and can also swing the bat and has a little bit of pop.”

The Twins will participate in Fall Ball before kicking off the 2019 season next March. Dedrick expects the Twins to at least duplicate this past season’s success.

“We’re always confident,” he said. “We set our bar high. We have a good nucleus coming back and they should know how to win. We had a pretty successful year last year and they’re going to hold the bar high for these incoming freshmen. These freshmen are used to winning, too. With the mix we have, we’re not going to shy away from anybody. We’re going to play the tough schedule and let the cards play out and see what happens.”