Threehouse encouraged despite struggles this season

Softball players believe they did enough, but deserved more

The Bonnies finished their 2019 campaign with a 9-36 record. The team’s record showed that the Bonnies struggled, and while that is true, the team was much closer to the goal than record speaks to.
In his 20th season, head softball coach Mike Threehouse said it best.
“It was one of my most rewarding years, but we just weren’t rewarded for it,” he said.
The Bonnies lost 15 games this season by two runs or fewer, including three games that reached extra innings.
“This season could have been totally different,” said Threehouse.
Despite the team’s late game struggles, their passion and fight was still there and Threehouse was impressed.
“I know the team stuck with it,” said Threehouse. “They played for each other all year long and I was proud of that.”
The moral victories that could with losing close games only went so far for coach and the team, but in the end, they called it as it was.
“Nine wins is not where we wanna be,” said Threehouse. “The losses were a combination of a whole bunch of things, and we have to find a way to do better.”
Aside from the win-loss record, the Bonnies found a real superstar in junior shortstop Brooke Kane-Walker. Walker came into the 2019 spring season having only had 115 at bats over her first two years on the team and hit only a combined .226 at the plate.
During the 2019 season, Walker found herself in the batter’s box 134 times, accumulating a .306 average.
When asked about her improvement at the plate, Walker could not help herself but give all the credit to her number one support system, her team.
“Coach has helped me out a lot by giving me confidence in the box,” Walker said. “If my teammates weren’t there supporting me and telling me I could do it every single day and believing in me, then I couldn’t have accomplished what I did this year.”
In what is a tremendously long and tumultuous season, it only gets tougher for the player when the losses begin to pile up. Threehouse gave his girls a lot of credit saying, “the one thing I was most proud of was that they didn’t give up.”
From the players standpoint, they did their best to cope with the close losses. Walker specifically worked to keep things in perspective.
“I just tried to have fun this year,” said Walker. “I tried to enjoy every minute of it, and it helped me in games to not get frustrated because I know there are bigger problems going on in people’s lives, and I just need to enjoy this opportunity that not a lot of people get.”
The Bonnies arrive at an offseason in which they have an abundance of holes to fill. The team lost six seniors that left a lasting impact on the program.
“That group of seniors kept us single-handedly in games all year,” said Threehouse. “They got us through the last few weekends.”
For 2019 team, a lot the games came down to one play or one pitch, and with some minor changes, the team could have won more than half of the games they lost, believed coach Threehouse. But as this team and this year is remembered in the archives of Bonaventure, it will be remembered as a team that did enough and deserved more.