Newton softball seeks improvement in 2025

The Newton softball team’s roster size is not ideal going into the 2025 season.

But the Cardinals bring back five players who started at least 29 games last summer and head coach Kory Leiker hopes a few underclassmen can break out to push the squad past the 20-win barrier for the first time since 2018.

“That’s always the goal,” Leiker said about winning 20 games. “I’m not changing it. I thought we would get it last year. We were 15-13 with four games to go and we lost them all.”

The Cardinals were 24-7 in 2018 and 18-16 in 2019. But the last four seasons have seen Newton average around 15 wins per season.

“If we play to our potential, we have a chance to get more wins than last year,” Leiker said. “We’re looking good with the talent we have.”

Headlining the roster is senior Chloe Swank and junior Mack Sims.

The Cardinals begin the season with a roster that goes 17 deep, but junior Ava Williams will miss 2-4 weeks due a foot injury.

That could test Newton’s depth early and force Leiker into using more eighth-graders than he originally thought he’d need.

“The Ava injury hurts,” Leiker said. “We worked with her all winter to be ready to go. Two weeks is five games but four weeks is 16 games.”

The coaching staff will lean on veterans like Sims and Swank as well as senior Paige Benson and junior Sloan Brodersen to produce at the plate.

They also hope to get breakout seasons from freshmen Mackenzly Brant and Lexi Frehse, sophomores BrookLynn Britton and Leileigh Hammons and juniors Viana Vasseau and Mackenzie Cupples, who is back out this season after playing in 19 games as a freshman.

Sims has started every game of her high school career so far. She started 31 games last season and led the Cardinals with a .433 batting average, 41 runs, six homers, 75 total bases and 24 steals.

Sims also clubbed eight doubles and two triples, walked 16 times, tallied 18 RBIs from the lead-off spot and had an on-base percentage of .516. Her fielding percentage in center field also was .940.

Sims started 33 games as a freshman and batted .321 with 32 runs and 19 RBIs. As an eighth-grader, she started all 32 games and battled .382 with 20 runs and 17 RBIs.

Sims starts her junior season with 93 career runs, 54 career RBIs and 54 stolen bases.

The outfield likely will feature Sims in center, Benson in left and either Britton or freshman Emerson Ray in right field.

But the injury to Williams will create more moving parts early in the season. Britton and Ray also likely will play on the infield.

Swank returns as the team’s starting third baseman. She started 31 games last season and has 121 career starts for the Cardinals.

Swank batted .324 with 18 runs, two homers and 51 total bases last season while leading the Cardinals in both doubles (10) and RBIs (23).

She posted 19 RBIs in 33 starts as a sophomore, had 15 RBIs in 30 starts as a freshman and drove in 12 runs in 27 starts as an eighth-grader.

Benson started all 31 games last season and made 28 starts as a sophomore. She batted .312 with 16 runs, two homers, five doubles, 18 RBIs, nine walks, 42 total bases and led the team with four hit by pitches last season.

Brodersen is back after starting all 30 games she played in last season. That was mostly at second base, but she shifts over to shortstop this summer.

Brodersen batted .241 with 18 runs, 15 RBIs and 10 walks last season. She drew 10 walks in 32 starts as a freshman and had 12 runs and eight walks in 20 starts as an eighth-grader.

Williams is the starting first baseman when she’s healthy. She batted .333 in 29 starts last season. She belted four homers, scored 11 runs, tallied 22 RBIs, walked 12 times and had 43 total bases.

Williams also had an on-base percentage of .429 and sported a fielding percentage of .957.

Britton, who starts the season with a minor back injury, made 11 starts and played in 25 games last season as a freshman. She scored 11 runs and stole six bases.

Brant made nine starts as an eighth-grader, while Vasseau played in 17 games and started six of them. Ray scored eight runs in the 16 games she played in last summer.

Hammons and Frehse will share pitching duties and are expected to have bigger roles in 2025.

Hammons was 3-3 in her six starts last season. She pitched 31 2/3 innings, while Frehse tossed 13 innings in her six games.

“They look really good,” Leiker said. “I’m really pleased with their offseason work. Our defense will have to step up, too.”

Haleigh Bozarth, Haylee Adams and Mila Sanders are the eighth-graders who will start the season on varsity and the rest of the roster includes freshmen Ashlyn Wallace and Layla Purvis and sophomore Shelby Richardson.

Newton 1, Marshalltown 0

Britton scored the game’s only run in the first inning and had two of the Cardinals’ four hits in Newton’s 1-0 home win over Marshalltown on Tuesday.

It was Newton’s ninth straight win over Marshalltown, but the one-run margin was the closest in the series since 2010.

Britton led the offense with two hits, one run and one steal. Swank tallied one hit, one RBI and one steal and Sims walked once and stole one base.

Brant registered one hit and Brodersen stole one base.

Hammons struck out seven Bobcat hitters and allowed no runs on three hits and two walks in seven innings.