The Iowa State softball team entered this fall season with 11 underclassmen, six of whom were freshmen.

Chemistry and leadership may have seemed far-fetched as the Cyclones recognized the inexperience on the roster for this upcoming year of softball.

However, after just about a month of action on the field and in the batting cages, the upperclassmen have stepped up to the plate and have begun to unite this young team.

“Our upperclassmen did a fantastic job leading our underclassmen,” said ISU coach Stacy Gemeinhardt-Cesler. “And I think our underclassmen did a great job just trying to figure it all out.”

From the opening of the season, the juniors and seniors identified the talent given to them in the freshmen and sophomores and allocated their own talents appropriately, mentoring those underclassmen who possessed similar skill sets to their own.

Freshman Gabby Voulgaris, a middle infielder, sought out guidance from the veteran middle infielders on the team. As a result, her play in the field significantly improved.

“The seniors I look up to the most are Lexi [Slater] and Maddie [Reese],” Voulgaris said. “They’re great leaders and tell us freshmen when we’re doing something wrong. They’re both great players. They’re both definitely my role models.”

Voulgaris, under the mentorship of Slater, Reese and other upperclassmen, produced significant success at the plate this season, finishing with a .435 batting average over the eight-game season.

Along with Voulgaris, three other freshmen developed into consistent starters over the two-week span of games: Nychole Antillon at third base, Kelsey McFarland in right field and Brianna Weilbacher on the mound.

In addition, sophomores Rachel Hartman, Cathlin Bingham and Katie Johnson were also among those who consistently started for the Cyclones. Thus, underclassmen held over half of the starting spots on a regular basis.

“We definitely developed cohesion,” said senior first basemen Jorden Spendlove. “We have six new freshmen and four of them are regularly starting. We’ve started to learn throws, learn how each other deals with pressure situations. Yeah, just learning each other.”

With that mentorship, however, also comes great expectation. Seeing that this fall season consists of only exhibition matches — most of which were against smaller schools — this leadership from the upperclassmen has also served to prepare the rookies for the competition of Big 12 softball.

Oklahoma, ranked No. 6 in the nation after last season, No. 9 Baylor and No. 26 Texas are just a few of the talented teams that the Cyclones will have to face this spring, and the leaders of the ISU softball team will look to the underclassmen for support in these tough match-ups.

“Softball in the Big 12 is pretty competitive,” Spendlove said. “We’re just trying to prepare [the underclassmen] for the big experiences. Yeah, we’ll [the upperclassmen] be big for them, but they have to be big for us.”