{"id":8687,"date":"2026-02-12T13:39:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/?p=8687"},"modified":"2026-02-12T13:47:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:47:18","slug":"blazers-push-for-more-in-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/12\/blazers-push-for-more-in-2026-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Renewed and Ready: Blazers Aim for Another Strong Season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By Piper Wright\/\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After finishing the 2025 season ranked No. 3 in the MAC Commonwealth Conference, the Blazers softball team looks to continue the success in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Coming off a 23-18 record that ended in the conference playoffs, the Blazers return confident of continuing to make waves in the MAC conference.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOur goal every year is to get the most out of our team and make the playoffs,\u201d coach Terry Burdette said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With a strong class of returners and leadership from juniors Kara Heidlauf and Sam Larkin, Burdette says he is confident they can lead them to success this coming season.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;\u201cSuccess for our program is to be united as a team and succeed as a team. We set our standard high last year, and we have embedded a goal to go further and further and only go up,\u201d team captain Sam Larkin said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOur returners gained a lot of great experience last year, which will help us compete against the best teams in the MAC,\u201d Burdette said. \u201cAlthough we lost some great players to graduation, I think we added a very talented class to our young returning core,\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Blazers have been focused on development while already building on systems installed in previous seasons, with significant improvement on defense and speed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI feel that if we take a similar approach to 2025, we have a good chance of making the MAC playoffs again,\u201d Burdette said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Blazers are focused on sustaining the same momentum and build upon the foundation established last season.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Blazers are back in action at the Hood College softball field on Feb. 28 to take on Dickinson College.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">##<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>By Piper Wright\/\/ After finishing the 2025 season ranked No. 3 in the MAC Commonwealth Conference, the Blazers softball team looks to continue the success in 2026. Coming off a 23-18 record that ended in <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/12\/blazers-push-for-more-in-2026-season\/\" title=\"Renewed and Ready: Blazers Aim for Another Strong Season\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":8716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[24,95],"class_list":["post-8687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-hood-college-athletics","tag-issue-1"],"aioseo_notices":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"","source_text":"","source_url":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8687"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8718,"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8687\/revisions\/8718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}