It is a new spring season and it has a new coach, but the ISU softball team still refuses to say it’s rebuilding.

“I’ll never say that we are rebuilding,” coach Stacy Gemeinhardt said, “because that sounds like you are going to lose, and that is exactly what I do not expect.”

Gemeinhardt was hired this past July to replace Ruth Crowe, who had a career winning percentage of .377 after nine seasons as head coach. Gemeinhardt has a career winning percentage of .677 after four seasons as coach at Emporia State, where she led the team to a 11-2-1 record in the fall season. She is already looking to impose her style of play with the players that are on the current roster.

“The style of play I like is an aggressive combination of speed and power,” Gemeinhardt said. “At the top and bottom of our lineup we have some speed, and hopefully in the middle we can have some power, as well. I also mean aggressive on the base paths – taking that extra base and never being satisfied with what we’re given, and forcing the defense to make a mistake.”

The cornerstone of this season’s softball team is its pitching staff, which returns all but senior Kristen Karanzias, who was going to move to third base but is instead out for the season with a knee injury. Karanzias will still be around the team, providing leadership for such a young roster.

“That is very unfortunate what happened to her,” Gemeinhardt said.

“She was going to have a great year, too – she was going to be our leadoff hitter and our third baseman, but as a coaching staff and as a team we can’t get hung up on things we can’t control.

“I expect a lot of things from our staff, however. Alyssa Ransom is a great pitcher and I expect her to build off of some of the big wins she’s had in the past, like over Texas. Even from the fall until now, I think she’s matured a lot, especially in her mental approach to the game.”

The team has the addition of redshirt sophomore Amie Ford, who posted a 1.21 ERA and had 257 strikeouts in 213.1 innings in her last full season.

“The other girls throw harder than I do,” Ford said. “But I throw a lot of junk, including a dropball that serves as my off-speed pitch, but my pitches have a lot of movement.”

The pitching staff had a combined 1.03 ERA in the fall semester.

Pitcher Katie Riechling will move to play third base, but can still pitch when needed.

The Cyclones will play a pair of games against South Carolina and Florida State in Tallahassee Fla., two teams against which they have a combined 0-9 record in school history.

Looking ahead on the season, the Cyclones will face 15 teams that participated in the NCAA tournament last season.

First pitch on Saturday is at 11 a.m. against Florida State and 3 p.m. against South Carolina. First pitch on Sunday is at 11 a.m. against South Carolina and 3 p.m. against Florida State.