Tigers anxious to begin title defense
STOCKTON - For Pacific softball coach Brian Kolze and his players, the 2012 season can't come soon enough.
Kolze guided the Tigers to his first Big West Conference crown in his 19th season in 2011 and the team returns almost entirely intact when the season begins Feb. 10 at the UCLA Tournament against Kentucky.
All-Big West performers Nikki Armagost, Megan Hom, Nicole Matson, Tori Shepard and Amy Moore will return, with just second baseman Lindsey Pierce having graduated.
"I know the players are excited, everybody is to come back in January," Kolze said. "I don't know if it's confidence, but I do know that in the fall, we had a high knowledge of how we do things, but I told the girls to win another one is sometimes harder than the first."
After installing lights at Bill Simoni Field last season, the program will make two more additions this spring. Kolze said the Tigers will be unveiling the Don and Thelma Stewart Family scoreboard when Pacific opens its home schedule March 2 with the Louisville Slugger Invitational and dedicating the new press box to former professor Libby Matson when the Tigers host the tournament bearing her name March 22.
He immediately fell in love with this area and made the Quad-Cities his home and married a local girl. The 1998 Season, Niuman was picked up by the Milwaukee Brewer's to play for their Stockton Ports AA Team. QC was always home and he and his wife