Southeast softball receiving early honors, poised for thrilling 2024 season

Just a week removed from the start of the 2024 NCAA Division I softball season, Southeast Missouri State softball got some big preseason love earlier this week.

The Redhawks were selected via a poll of Ohio Valley Conference officials to finish as the top team in the conference’s regular season for the fourth time in five years.

Beating out Eastern Illinois with six first-place votes and Tennessee-Martin with one of its own, the Redhawks received 13 first-place votes and finished well in front of the Panthers for the preseason crown.

Southeast throttled Ohio Valley competition last season, finishing with a whopping 20-2 record within league play but inevitably bowing out early into the conference tournament.

With any luck, this squad could make a run at an NCAA Tournament berth. Despite a rough run in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament a year ago, the hopes are high for 2024.

The Redhawks quickly reloaded, however, and bring a roster laden with talent into the spring season with aspirations to make that next step this year.

That reload included the return of all four of Southeast’s top batters from last season, led in batting average by the impressive .371 of senior Zoe Schulte.

Behind her, Paige Halliwill (.352), Aubrie Shore (.347) and Abigail Rickermann (.338) all had outstanding years at the plate last season and look to continue that success.

Shore led those Redhawks with seven home runs last spring, finishing the season with a total 17 extra-base hits.

Halliwill and Shore both started all 43 games in SEMO’s 29-14 2023 season, with Halliwill becoming a regular fixture in center field while Shore started all 43 at first base.

What likely goes down as the biggest loss for Southeast is the departure of star pitcher Marisa Davis, who finished the season with a team-leading 2.07 ERA and a 9-2 season record.

But Davis finished the season dead last in at-bats last season, with teammates Delaney Kell and Paytience Holman both finishing above her in batters faced.

And while Davis may have led the team in ERA, her teammates both followed close behind as Kell and Holman finished with 2.81 and 3.04 marks respectively.

With both of these arms returning for the 2024 season, there’s a high expectation placed upon the Redhawks’ pitching unit as a hefty hand of talent returns for the new year.

Both offensively and defensively, a large deal of the brilliance that led SEMO to a nearly perfect record in last year’s Ohio Valley Conference season is returning for another run at a title.

That run begins sooner than you may think, as the season’s start is right on the horizon.

Southeast is set to kick off its season in the Felsberg Invitational in Miami, beginning with a 10 a.m. game against Stony Brook on Friday, Feb. 9.

There, the Redhawks will take on hosting Florida International later that day and Ohio State the next day with two more games yet to be determined.

They’ll run into their fair share of talent in Miami, but it’ll be a paramount weekend in judging just how good this powerful Redhawk squad is.

Better yet, if they can make it out of Miami in good condition, the Ohio Valley Conference had better watch out.