After barely missing a trip to the state tournament last season, the Pleasantville softball team will return a majority of their key contributors this year.

The Trojans ended last season in heartbreaking fashion falling to Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont 3-2 in a regional final game that came down to the wire with a trip to state on the line. However, Trojan softball fans will see a majority of last year’s team back this year with a chip on their shoulders. Despite graduating three seniors in Danika Park, Carly Cox, and Madilyn Rowson who were big pieces to the success of last year’s team, the Trojans will return seven players who played in a majority of last season’s games.

Pleasantville will bring back Ella Clark, Taylor Perkins, Kyliegh McConnell, Kally Wysong, Emily Roe, and Faith Nelson who all were regularly in the lineup on last year’s team. The Trojans will also return Lainey Kennedy who pitched 144 innings for the Trojans in 2024. Head Coach Alee Phillips says last year’s regional finals loss hurt because her team was so close, but it has helped build confidence around the program heading into this year because of how much talent the team knows they have. 

“We’re all still pretty upset about it. You get so close to making it to the state tournament, we’re talking inches, we were inches away from making it, but on the flip side of that there is a lot we can build off of. I think a lot of people maybe looked at us as the underdog or that we wouldn’t advance that far so I think we surprised a lot of people. We had a pretty good following so kind of building off that and allowing the girls to understand that they are capable of doing this kind of stuff and if we do the small things it creates the big things and so we kind of have that mentality as we head into the 2025 season.”

The Pleasantville softball team will start their 2025 season on Tuesday when they travel to Des Moines Christian.