Last year, Maple Grove's senior staff ace Shanna Sticka led the otherwise-youthful Crimson to a fourth-place finish in the team's second state tournament appearance.
To call Sticka's 2010 season dominant would be putting it lightly.
This year, though, with Sticka gone and the pitching rubber moved from 40 to 43 feet from home plate, the still-young Crimson will look to prove that it should remain in the 2011 discussion with the state's elite teams.
"I know that [the pitching staff has] definitely got a lot more mental toughness than they had last year, because this year they know they have to go in there and pitch," junior third baseman Mandi Mauch said at practice last week. "Last year it was like, 'Oh, well if I don't have a good game, Shanna will just come in.' This year, there is no 'Shanna's just going to come in,' and they know that now."
Juniors Cayli Sadler and Kylie Bratten will anchor the Crimson's pitching staff.
Though Sticka carried most of the burden last year -- she finished with a 0.52 ERA and 264 strikeouts on the season -- Sadler and Bratten proved themselves capable of picking up the slack as sophomores.
Crimson coach Jim Koltes said he hasn't decided for sure who his No. 1 starting pitcher will be this season, and that he would not necessarily be opposed to Sadler and Bratten splitting pitching responsibilities more or less equally.
The early part of the season, Koltes said, will serve as something of an audition period for his top hurlers.