WARDEN — After a near-perfect regular season, the Warden Cougars bowed out of the 2B State Softball Tournament with losses to Rainier and Toledo last year. Now, the Cougars enter the 2023 season with goals of advancing further at state.

“I’m really excited coming into my senior year because I’ve been playing softball for a long time,” senior Alexis Leinweber said. “I think we left the season short last year and we have a lot to come back to. I’m really excited to see what we can do as a team.”

The Cougars only lost two seniors from last year’s roster and return much of the same core of players.

“It hasn’t changed much from last year,” Head Coach Randy Wright said. “We lost a couple of seniors, but we got replacements that are just as good. I don’t think we dropped at all. Just working on the mental side a little bit, I think that’s what hurt us last year. But hopefully, that experience gets us to do a little better.”

“We just reload, that’s pretty much what we do,” Wright added.

An emphasis early on in the season has been on the mental aspect of the game, hoping that mental fortitude will help the Cougars make it back to state and advance further on in the tournament.

“It’s the mental side,” Wright said. “They’ve got to realize that they’ve got to keep their mind in the game. Sometimes you get caught up in ‘We’re going to state,’ or you get excited, but I think the mind wanders sometimes. You want to impress people in the stands, that’s normal, but you’ve got to get past that and just play ball. That’s something we’re working on this year.”

Warden beefed up its regular season schedule by traveling to face Adna in early April, a move that will help when it comes time for the postseason. The Adna Pirates placed second in last year’s state tournament.

“It’s a long trip, but it’s going to be worth it,” Wright said. “I’ve really been wanting to do this, we need to see some competition from the other side, go in there and face that. Win or lose, it makes you a better ball club.”

A solid returning core means that players have experience with one another on and off the field, which leads to better results, according to Leinweber.

“We all know each other and know the chemistry of how we work together on the field,” Leinweber said. “I think knowing each other’s chemistry already will help benefit us a lot this season.”

Leinweber will use her pitching experience from last year as the team’s No. 1 pitcher in the circle this season.

“It’s exciting knowing that I’ll be there in the center pitching and knowing that I’ll have a great team behind me,” Leinweber said. “A little nervous because I know we’ve got some tougher games this year and I know I’ve got to work hard this season, but I know my team’s got my back.”

Ian Bivona can be reached via email at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.