The Kansas softball team has competed in tournaments in Florida, Nevada, Texas and Illinois. After compiling a 15-5 in these road tournaments, the Jayhawks will open their home season with the Jayhawk Classic tournament.

The Jayhawks return from Carbondale, Ill. where they finished with a 3-1 record last weekend. They lost a close game to the eighth-ranked Northwestern Wildcats 2-0. The Jayhawks finished the tournament by shutting out Southern Illinois and exploding offensively on the final day by beating Western Illinois 8-6 and Bradley 10-2.

The Jayhawks face Western Illinois again this weekend, along with Indiana State and Pittsburgh.

“It’s a nice balance of teams,” coach Tracy Bunge said. She said each team brought something different to the competition. Bunge said Western Illinois had a good line-up, Indiana State had good pitching and Pittsburgh was a team that got off to a good start but had struggled lately.

Junior center fielder Dougie McCaulley said the team was very confident going into this weekend’s games.

“There’s no reason why we shouldn’t go undefeated these next couple weekends. We feel like we can compete with any team out there right now,” McCaulley said.

McCaulley had a great weekend in Illinois batting .571 in the Southern Illinois Invitational and leads the team with a .403 season batting average.

The Jayhawks are finally receiving votes in the Top 25 polls, but McCaulley said that didn’t really matter to her.

“I enjoy being the underdog,” McCaulley said.

Bunge mirrored that statement.

“The polls are nice to get some recognition, but that’s basically all it is. It’s recognition,” Bunge said. Bunge said it was more important to make the post-season tournament, because the Jayhawks were ranked in the Top 25 at the end of the season and missed out on post-season play before.

Bunge said a strong factor in making the College Softball World Series was winning the regional games the team played in the regular season. Indiana State and Western Illinois are both teams in the Jayhawks’ region.

McCaulley said the team chemistry had grown a lot so far this year. She also shared Bunge’s idea that the Jayhawks are very balanced and team–oriented.

“Every player plays a key role in every win that we have,” McCaulley said.

Bunge said this week the team will try to improve offensively and will fight the cold weather for some practice time outside. The team will have to play in cold weather this weekend and Bunge said they would have to adjust.

Bunge said that she tried to start this season this time each year because it was the earliest time she thought the weather could work for a softball tournament.

“The hard part is always to get people to come here and play here in March,” Bunge said.

The weather was the reason why the game times were rescheduled this weekend. The teams will try and avoid the cold weather as best as possible, but Western Illinois, Indiana State and Pittsburgh are all from cold areas so they should not be affected.

—Edited by Nick Mangiaracina