Nov. 1, 2010
Junior Kelsi Weseman hopes the third time is a charm — not that her first two seasons have been so bad.
The 2009 ACC Freshman of the Year, Weseman used her sophomore season to earn a berth as first-team All-ACC for the second consecutive season while establishing herself as the team’s No. 3 hitter and the infield’s anchor at shortstop.
The 2010 season presents a whole new series of challenges, especially with the graduation of legendary second baseman Jen Yee.
With the softball team having recently wrapped up their fall practices, the Hutto, Texas, native took a few minutes to talk with Sting Daily about Fall Ball, her increased role in the post-Jen Yee era and how she and the team are treating their goal for an ACC Three-peat.
1. How would you assess Fall Ball for yourself and the team?
Kelsi Weseman: I think things went well. Our freshmen got a lot of experience about what the spring is going to be like and all our returners got a lot of work together as a team. It was a lot of fun. I definitely made progress but I feel like I still want to work a lot to get better for spring. I got to hit a lot, so that felt pretty good.
2. Where did you want to get better?
WESEMAN: I wanted to get quicker on defense and move my feet better so I get more range and try to hit more line drives. Get better all around I guess.
3. You’ll be breaking in a new second baseman this spring. What are your thoughts on the candidates to man second?
WESEMAN: We’ll definitely miss [Jen] Yee. She was a great player. But we have two new people, Ashley Thomas, a freshman, and Shannon Bear, who’s a junior. Both have started working at second base. It’s been a learning experience for me. Yee always knew what was going on. Now I have to step up into that role of making sure they know where the next play is. It’s been a good learning experience for me and a lot of fun working with those two.
4. Can losing Yee be turned into a positive as it will make others step up?
WESEMAN: I think so. We might have relied on Yee a little bit too much last year to get us going. So now we have to find new people to step up. Maybe two people can fill her one role. We’ll be able to get through it.
5. The Yellow Jackets have won back-to-back ACC championships. Is the pursuit of a third a challenge or pressure?
WESEMAN: A challenge. We’ve won the last two years so everybody’s going to be looking to knock us off this year. It’s definitely going to be a good challenge to see if we can stay where we have been the last two years and move forward to the [Super Regionals] again and the World Series.
BONUS: How does it feel to have never NOT won an ACC Championship?
WESEMAN: Hopefully I’ll never know what it’s like to NOT win one (laughs). It’s a great feeling to have two ACC Championships and it’s been a lot of fun to be part of trying to start a winning tradition here at Tech.
