ADM softball had its season opener scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday night at home against Des-Moines Roosevelt postponed due to rain, with no makeup date yet announced.
The postponement delays the debuts of several new players at key positions. Most notably, ADM will field a new catcher this season since last year’s starting catcher, Hannah Tiffany, graduated.
Whoever head coach Rick Dillinger runs out behind home plate will have to develop a rapport with First Team All-State starting pitcher Molly Jacobsen.
“Well we’ve looked at Shannan Jones and Maddy Walker right now and of course we’ve had some youngsters we’re looking at, too,” Dillinger said. “It’s going to depend on who can catch Molly the best basically and who takes command of that, and who can take control of the low ball as far as blocking the ball if it gets away, those types of things. We’re inexperienced there at a varsity level overall, but we worked hard over the offseason so I think we’ve got kids that can come up and catch.”
Jacobsen enjoyed a breakout campaign last year despite pitching on a bad left knee the entire time, posting a 1.91 ERA with 330 strikeouts in 238 innings. Tiffany was a big part of that success, but Jacobsen sounds confident ADM’s next starting catcher will be up to the task.
“It hasn’t been too bad,” said Jacbosen of working with candidates for the starting catching job. “They just have to learn a different movement than what they’re used to, probably, since I’m left-handed, so that’s a little different. Just communication is probably the biggest key. Just letting them know what I’m throwing and how it’s going to move. Sometimes it moves unexpectedly, like a different way than what I planned.
“But all of our catchers have handled it really well and they’re doing a good job.”
First pitch from the ADM softball field is at 7:30 p.m. Our first Tigers softball broadcast of the year is Wednesday night from Adel as ADM plays host to the Carroll Tigers in conference action. Our pregame show on K107 and raccoonvalleyradio.com begins at 7:15 p.m., with first pitch at 7:30.