Bears softball setting the bar a little higher

New London — Before, the goals for the Coast Guard Academy softball team were more modest:

Get to the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference tournament. Win the NEWMAC tournament, if at all possible.

"Our goals are a little higher this year," junior pitcher Hayley Feindel said Wednesday, during one of the team's fall practice sessions. "I have high hopes."

Coast Guard finished 34-10 this spring before falling to Eastern Connecticut State in the championship round of the NCAA Division III tournament.

Feindel was 32-10 with 367 strikeouts and led the nation in wins for the second straight season. She and catcher Amanda Frederick (.483, 52 RBI), the NEWMAC and ECAC Player of the Year last season who is entering her senior year, were named third-team All-Americans.

Coast Guard returns all but two members of its starting lineup from that team and all but one position player.

"For the second year in a row we feel like we still have some work to do," Coast Guard coach Donna Koczajowski said of her team's second straight loss in the NCAA regional round. "The loss still stings."

Koczajowski said Coast Guard will only use about nine of the 15 fall practices allowable by the NCAA due to military and academic commitments, but this time gives her players a chance to get familiar with any underclassmen and to "get the rust off." She said the team will begin practicing full time in January.

"It's good for the fourth class to get a look at the upperclassmen (some of whom were in charge of the Swab Summer program for incoming freshmen) and say, 'She's my second baseman. She's not yelling at me now,'" said Koczajowski, entering her 14th season.

"It's very relaxed, very low key, just a chance to get to know each other as a team."

v.fulkerson@theday.com