The Hope College softball team hopes to be prolific on the base paths nationally again as it pursues a successful 2014 season.
Coach Mary VandeHoef's Flying Dutch finished third in NCAA Division III in stolen bases last season with a school-record 97 steals in 111 attempts.
Sophomore outfielder Autumn Anderson of Dorr (Wayland HS) ranked 34th in the nation with 20 steals in 20 attempts.
Last season, Hope ended Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association regular-season play in fourth place and advanced to the league tournament. The Flying Dutch had a 17-19 overall record for the season.
In 2014, VandeHoef begins her fourth season with a roster of 20 players that includes 14 returning letterwinners. There are one senior, nine juniors, six sophomores and four freshmen.
Co-captains this season are senior catcher/infielder Emma Page of Portage (Portage Central HS), pictured, and junior infielder Peyton Wells of Rockford (Rockford).
The Flying Dutch return three players who received All-MIAA recognition last season. Anderson made the All-MIAA First Team as a freshman, while juniors Kelsey Cooper of Romeo (Romeo HS) and Natalie Hiser of Westland (Livonia Churchill HS) were both on the second team.
Anderson hit .350 and scored a team-high 32 runs in 32 games for the Flying Dutch last season. Wells totaled 28 RBIs in 36 games to finish second on the team. Hiser posted a 10-6 record on the mound while logging a team-best 10-6 record and a 103 1/3 innings pitched.
Other returning letterwinners for Hope are: junior utility player Becca Phillips of Wayland (Wayland HS), junior infielder Montana Bredeweg of Wayland (Wayland HS), junior infielder Natalie Leahy of Winfield, Ill. (Wheaton North HS), junior catcher Adalee Robertson of Flushing (Flushing HS), junior infielder Julie Sobieski of St. Charles, Ill. (St. Charles East HS), junior pitcher Olivia Vacik of Bolingbrook, Ill. (Neuqua Valley HS), sophomore pitcher and utility player Kate Laverty of Eaton Rapids (Eaton Rapids HS), sophomore infielder Jenna Maury of Lawton (Lawton HS) and sophomore utility Beth Sitterley of St. Louis, Mo. (Webster Groves HS).
