ORIGINS OF HOPE SOFTBALL
Softball became an intercollegiate sport at Hope College in 1975 and began MIAA play in 1979.
PROGRAM MILESTONES
The 1991 Flying Dutch finished third in the nation among NCAA Division III teams with 30 victories. They topped NCAA Division III in fielding. The team's .975 fielding average (31 errors in 1,192 chances over 42 games) tied the Division III single-season mark first set by Illinois Benedictine in 1983.
The 1995 Flying Dutch placed fifth nationally.
The 2006 Flying Dutch won a school-record 32 games, including a 2-2 mark in the NCAA championships. They also were MIAA champions.
The 2015 Flying Dutch set six team records during a 29-11 season that saw the Flying Dutch finish as regional runner-up: hits (384), home runs (38), doubles (69), slugging percentage (.526), total bases (585) and runs scored (274). They reached the regional final before losing to Lake Forest, Illinois.
The 2017 Flying Dutch won a share of the regular-season MIAA title, hosted the MIAA Tournament, and advanced to the regional finals for the second time in three seasons. They fell to Trine in the regional championship game.
The 2018 Flying Dutch finished with a school-record 34 wins. Hope hosted an NCAA regional and NCAA Super Regional at Wolters Stadium. The Flying Dutch defeated Calvin, 9-6 and 2-0, on the final day to win the regional. Hope split the first two Super Regional games against Case Western Reserve University (Ohio), losing Game 1, 3-2, but winning Game 2, 3-1. Case Western Reserve won the third game, 4-1, to advance to the College World Series.
The 2020 Flying Dutch only played three games during the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic and went 21 in an abbreviated season. The next season, the 2021 Flying Dutch won a share of the MIAA championship with a 14-2 league record and a 25-11 mark overall.
PLAYERS AND PLAYS OF NOTE
The Flying Dutch set a school record with 14 hits in one inning on May 5, 1990 during a 24-1 win vs. Olivet in the fourth inning.
Lisa Walters pitched in seven consecutive games without allowing a run during the 1991 season. She pitched four consecutive complete-game shutouts, then pitched three innings as a starter before leaving the game with Hope ahead 7-0, then two more complete game shutouts, and finally two innings of a game before allowing a run. That was a total of 47 consecutive shutout innings.
Junior centerfielder Sherrie Scholten played errorless at her position for the third consecutive year (131 chances) in 1991. Over her entire career, she committed just one error in 193 chances.
Laurie Byington finished her Flying Dutch career from 1993-96 as a three-time All-America centerfielder who topped the MIAA in batting three seasons, including a conference-best career average.
In 1994, the Flying Dutch played their longest game with a 2-1, 12-inning victory vs. Albion on May 5, 1994. Nicki Mannes pitched all 12 innings.
Kim Grotenhuis was a two-time Academic All-American for Hope who pitched three no-hitters in her career from 1998-2001.
Megan VanderMaas became the first freshman pitcher to throw a no-hitter when she blanked Maryville, Mo. 8-0 on her 19th birthday - April 8, 2006.
In 2007, a record 10 Hope players had at least one home run as the Flying Dutch hit a single-season record 19 home runs. The players hitting home runs were Kelli Duimstra 4, Kylee Brouwer 3, Tara Hamming 2, Maddie Garcia 2, Casey Feltner 2, Angie Randall 2, Jessica Regnerus 1, Laura Tanouye 1, Beth Yahraus 1, and Becca Baker 1.
In 2008, senior teammates Kylee Brouwer and Jessica Regnerus each had the distinction of achieving All-MIAA and all-region honors for a fourth consecutive year.
The Flying Dutch executed a rare triple play in defeating St. Norbert (Wisconsin) 9-4 in a spring break game in Flordia on March 18, 2009. The game-ending triple play started with a line drive snagged by first baseman Kelli Duimstra who stepped on first base and then fired the ball to shortstop Beth Yahraus who was covering second and was able to catch a retreating St. Norbert baserunner.
The Flying Dutch hit a school-record 11 home runs in sweeping a doubleheader from Albion, 10-3 with five home runs and 12-7 with six home runs on April 1, 2009. Three players -- Kelli Duimstra, Beth Yahraus and Andrea Reinecke -- each had three home runs while collecting one apiece were Erica Smith and Abby Phillips. The barrage raised the team's season total to a school-record 22 home runs and it only at mid-season.
Maintaining a perfect 4.0 academic grade point average throughout her collegiate career, Laura Tjepkema was named a CoSIDA Academic All-American as both a junior (2012) and senior (2013).
Peyton Wells homered twice, including a go-ahead grand slam, as the 2015 Flying Dutch defeated eighth-ranked Trine 15-10 in the second game of a March 31 doubleheader at Wolters Stadium. The victory ended a MIAA-record, 49-game conference regular-season win streak for Trine.
Peyton Wells broke the career RBI record during a 10-7 win against Wisconsin-Whitewater during a first-round win in the NCAA Division III Tournament in Lake Forest, Illinois. She totaled six RBI during the game to pass Kelli Duimstra's previous record of 123. Wells finished her Hope career with 126 RBI.
Autumn Anderson set the Flying Dutch's career stolen-base record with 75. The four-time, All-MIAA honoree also collected 199 hits during his career — third-most in team history.
Sydney Jones set single-season and career strikeouts records for the Flying Dutch during the 2017 season. As a junior, she totaled 229 strikeouts for the season to give her 482 in her career. She also set school records with 17 wins and 11 shutouts. Her 1.18 ERA was the second-lowest in team history for a single season. Jones earned Fastpitch All-America honors as a senior. She closed her career with a school-record 55 wins, 24 shutouts, 724 strikeouts, and 537 innings.
Hayley Reitsma was awarded an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship in 2019. A catcher, Reitsma was selected as one of 11 CoSIDA Google Cloud Softball First-Team Academic All-Americans during her seniors season in 2018. She batted a career-high .413 during the season and hit a school-record 13 home runs. She also set an MIAA record with 11 home runs during league games.
Shay Pinhey claimed CoSIDA Academic All-American honors as a senior in 2018. She concluded her four-year Hope career with 193 hits — fourth most all-time in team history. She also collected 98 runs batted in — ninth-most all-time among Flying Dutch players.
COACHES OF NOTE
Karla Wolters coached collegiate athletics for 36 years, including 23 years at the helm of the Flying Dutch softball team. She retired at the end of the 2010 season and passed away on November 29, 2016. During her career, Wolters coached 1,792 athletic contests. Her records by sport were: softball (684-398/515-320 at Hope), volleyball (375-194), field hockey (40-26-7), basketball (24-21), and tennis (14-9). She coached teams with winning records in a season 46 times compared to nine losing campaigns and three .500 marks. The Flying Dutch marked the end of her coaching career by sweeping a home MIAA doubleheader over Olivet on May 1, 2010. Hope's softball facility was named after Coach Wolters and her husband, Tom, in 2008.
Mary Vande Hoef reached the 200-win milestone in 2019 during the team's annual spring break trip to Florida. In her ninth season, VandeHoef joined Karla Wolters in achieving the feat. VandeHoef reached the 100-win mark in her 176th game as head coach on April 6, 2015, during an 11-3, six-inning win against the University of Chicago in Game 2 of a nonleague doubleheader at Wolters Stadium. Hope won the first game 5-3. Vande Hoef coached the Flying Dutch for 12 seasons before stepping down after the 2022 season and finished with a 272-163-2 overall record.
