A new season of Columbus Wildcats softball begins tonight. Columbus is looking to make a leap from eight wins last summer, including a 5-10 record in conference play.

The Wildcats will have back one of the best hitters in the state in senior Lily Coil, who had a .623 batting average, 33 total hits, 10 doubles and 21 runs batted in while playing 21 games last season.

It was a strong follow-up to having the same average in 2023 to go with eight doubles, five triples, three home runs and 34 runs scored. Coil has also been one of Columbus’ top pitchers the last two seasons, posting a 2.84 earned-run average and 110 strikeouts in over 100 innings of work.

The Wildcats will have back a number of other top hitters, like sophomore Ellie Sanders, who batted .461 and scored a team-high 30 runs in 2024, and junior Kennedy Woepking, who led the team with 22 RBI and hit .354. Columbus head coach Dustin Traylor tells KCII Sports that his team is headed back in the right direction.

“Our record probably doesn’t show [it], but by the end of [last] year we were a formidable team,” Traylor says. “We won our first playoff game in 25 years [and] we’re probably 15 to 20 practices ahead of where we were last year at this time, so that’s definitely helped out a lot. We’re on the right trend here.”

The Wildcats’ first opponent of this softball season is Mediapolis, who they will host this evening in Columbus Junction.