The Pacific softball team looks to continue its climb up the Northwest Conference standings.
 
After tying for seventh two years ago, the Boxers placed sixth last season and now have their sights set on finishing in the top four and qualifying for the NWC tournament.
 
"One of our team goals is to make the conference tournament," Pacific head coach Shelly Prochaska said. "I love that they're swinging for the fences."
 
In order to move up the standings, Pacific will have to produce more at the plate. In a transition year, the Boxers had the lowest team batting average (.239) in the conference last season and scored the second fewest runs at 143.
 
"We brought in a new hitting concept (last season) and when you change things, it usually takes about a year," Prochaska said. "We had a lot of loud outs. We didn't get the base hit, but we had some deep fly balls around the fence caught, or line drives caught.
 
"I can't tell you how many times we had the bases loaded, and we were just one hit away from breaking the game open. If you go by the numbers, it didn't look like we had a good year, but we were in a lot of games. We definitely had some bad luck on some key plays."
 
The highlight of the 2025 season came in a series split against third-place George Fox. The first win, a 1-0 victory on April 5, snapped a 15-game losing streak to the Bruins, dating back to 2021.
 
Infielder Chloe Knepp, selected All-NWC Honorable Mention after leading the Boxers in batting average (.257), doubles (6), home runs (4) and RBIs (12), is back for her senior year.
 
"We have a lot of our starters back and the experience and leadership from the seniors and the juniors has been amazing so far," Prochaska said. "I'm super excited. I think they want to go out with a bang, and I think that they put in the preparation to put themselves in a good place to do that."
 
Transfers Alissa Hermansen and Bailey Farrimond join a deep pitching rotation that also includes returnees Kiara Baba, Abby Surowiec, Karlie Espinoza and Peyton Davis. 
 
"What I really like about the new pitchers is that they complement our returners really well," Prochaska said.
 
The Boxers open the 2026 season on Sunday, Feb. 22 at Bushnell.
 
"I feel like we're on the same page of how to go about playing the game and training," Prochaska said. "I feel like they are bought into what I'm doing and I have more of a footprint this year versus in the past. I think we're going to really make some waves this year."

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