Falcons embrace new sense of competitiveness entering postseason

May 4—FAIRMONT — It comes as a great irony that the Fairmont State Falcons' historic success has flowed out of a mindset where success on the softball field does not define them.

The Falcons softball squad reached new heights at the conclusion of the 2023 regular season, claiming their first-ever Mountain East Conference regular season championship with a 21-11 conference record, 31-21 overall. This comes after Fairmont captured the MEC Softball Championship series in 2022.

With a historic accolade for the program, head coach Brooke Sullivan's first year at the helm of the Falcons is off to quite the start. Taking the position this past year, perhaps the biggest attitude the former George Mason catcher brought with her to the job was a focus on competitiveness.

"It's been a lot of fun," Sullivan said. "When I took the job, my first couple questions were 'I want to be competitive, and I want to make sure our student-athletes want to win.' I want to be competitive not just on the softball field but in the classroom, be competitors in life.

"That was a big deal for me when I took this job and I definitely wasn't disappointed or let down. We have that, and that's awesome. I hope I continue in my journey of learning how to be a better coach and learning how to ask them to be competitors, not just on the softball field, and we've continued to do that."

Sparking a competitive spirit has led to team success and several impressive individual performances within the team.

Senior infielder Emily Riggs has continued to assert herself as one of the bets bats in the conference, exiting the regular season with a career-best 1.238 OPS, totaling 16 doubles, a triple and eight home runs to slug .752 on the year. Riggs leads the team in doubles, homers and RBIs (39) despite missing a stretch of games in April.

To Sullivan, Riggs proved her value even more by what she contributed while she was sidelined.

"[Riggs] absolutely is an awesome ballplayer all-around," Sullivan said. "She did suffer a little bit of a setback with an injury about a month ago. Just having her in the dugout beside me at practice, it's gone a long way for her, it's gone a long way for our team. She is learning a lot about what it's like to be a great teammate, and even if you can't be on the field all the time, what you can do in the dugout, the classroom, what you can do to help your teammates out.

"We are thrilled to have her back right now helping us out in the lineup, but that time off had done us really well, it helped other teammates ask questions to Emily and see how they could be a little more disciplined and mature in the box. Having her is way more than just a great bat, it's so much more."

While the senior slugger leads the Falcons at the plate alongside stalwarts like Alexa Andrews (.894 OPS), Hannah Workman (.838 OPS), Peyton Wetherholt (.923 OPS) and Katy Darnell (.932 OPS), on the opposite side of things, a freshman is excelling on the mound for Fairmont.

Emma Gates has led the team in innings pitched (110.2) and wins (13) while holding down a 3.82 ERA and 1.12 WHIP in her inaugural season at the university.

Much like Riggs, she has also been valuable in ways that go beyond her pitching ability.

"Emma is a unique student-athlete," Sullivan said. "She is a competitor, no doubt, but she knows that she's so much more for our team. She is a great teammate, she has a lot of positivity, not just at softball but in everything she does.

"It goes a long way — Emma knows that she is a great pitcher but she does the most for picking up her teammates, encouraging and helping even if she's not in the lineup, maybe she's not a defensive player all the time, she's still a great person to have in our dugout for her positivity."

Gates has started 21 games for Fairmont, and Caitlyn Kassay (16) and Shelby Reed (12) have also started plenty of outings for the Falcons, Kassay posting an ERA of 3.88 and Reed posting a 3.94.

Taking note of her team's qualities as people, not just as players, harmonizes completely with her message to her team all season long — to realize themselves as both student and athlete.

"I think it starts with understanding that they are so much more than just student-athletes, and our success on the field is not who we are," Sullivan said of the Falcons' team culture. "Softball is what we do and what we play, and we have fun and are successful at it, but it's not who we are. We have multiple architecture majors, we have an engineering major, we have a couple nursing majors.

"These student-athletes are going to go and change the world, and I tell them all the time, there's so much more than balls and strikes and 'Oh, we booted a groundball.' The sun still comes up tomorrow and you're still going to be a great nurse. It's helped us a lot to relax on the softball field and have a lot of fun with it. Softball can turn into a little bit of a job, and that's not what we want. We want to find that success, and be happy and have fun with it, but it's what we do, it's not who we are."

The results on the field have vindicated the Falcons' focus on being 'competitors in life,' especially as of late.

Fairmont State has enjoyed several hot stretches in the latter part of the season, including a nine-game win streak in-between April 12 and April 23. The Falcons have turned things up a notch heading into postseason play, with an improved approach at the plate emerging as the main culprit.

"I think that we've definitely stepped up at the plate," Sullivan said. "Obviously you can't win if you don't score runs, but we've had better quality AB's. We're still learning how we are as hitters and we are definitely looking for better pitches to hit.

"We're being more disciplined, and that has effected our entire game, not just in the box. Our pitchers are starting to be more disciplined on the mound, our defense has picked it up a bit, and that goes back to being competitive and wanting everybody to be successful and giving it their all."

While the Falcons have earned the title of regular season MEC champs, the MEC Tournament itself kicks off on Friday, with Fairmont State drawing a first-round matchup against Glenville State, who Fairmont beat by slim one-run margins in both the team's prior meetings this season.

The tourney is slated to take place in Troutville, Virginia, a fair hike for the Falcons, who won the conference tournament last year in Salem, Virginia.

"The tournament is always an interesting time," Sullivan said. "We say it all the time, the Mountain East is competitive, you've got to show up and compete. We do talk about how we can be more competitive on the road — it's a lot easier when you just show up on your own turf and you kind of know what to expect."

Entering tournament play, Sullivan and Fairmont State are looking to maintain their disciplined approach, and their competitive mindset in defending their title.

"Going into the tournament we're looking to continue to play our game," Sullivan said. "Our pitchers are phenomenal, they'll continue to pound the zone. We're going to take quality AB's, we're going to be disciplined. We're going to run the bases hard and aggressively like we've done all season, and defense is going to have to continue to come up big for us and we know that."

"I'm excited to see what our student-athletes can do in Virginia, and we know we have to be competitive, so we're excited for that."

Reach Nick Henthorn at 304-367-2548, on Twitter @nfhenthorn_135 or by email at nhenthorn@timeswv.com.