The Bulldogs look to build off of last year’s suc­cess to take the pro­gram to a new level.

Coming off last season’s 35–10 over­all record and a sec­ond straight NCAA Division II Regional Tournament appear­ance, the Bulldogs will count on an expe­ri­enced team to lead the way towards a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) cham­pi­onship and another Division II Championship regional bid.

One of the vet­eran lead­ers who will fig­ure to make an impact this sea­son will be 2009 First Team All-GLIAC selec­tion Amanda Harrington, a senior sec­ond baseman.

Harrington enters this sea­son tied for 11^th on the program’s all-time home run list and is 16^th in all-time bat­ting aver­age with a .298 career mark at Ferris.

“We’ve been work­ing hard this off­sea­son,” said Harrington. “We know exactly what it takes to win and how to do it.”

Another vet­eran who could be instru­men­tal to this year’s suc­cess is senior pitcher/utility player Rhea Flores. Flores led the Bulldogs with six home­runs last sea­son, as well as ranked sec­ond on the team in base hits with 43 and sec­ond in runs bat­ted in (RBIs)with 25.

Senior pitcher/first base­man Kayle Stevenson will look to anchor the pitch­ing staff, as she comes off of last season’s suc­cess with 12 vic­to­ries and a 0.91 earned run average.

Though the team, led by 13^th-year head coach Keri Becker, will have expe­ri­ence on its side, nav­i­gat­ing a dif­fi­cult 2010 sched­ule will be a chal­lenge. Eight of the 46 teams the Bulldogs will face this sea­son are either ranked in the top 25 or have received votes in the 2010 National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Division II Top 25 Preseason Poll.

The team will be tested early in the sea­son, as the Bulldogs will start off at the Alabama-Huntsville Charger Chillout on Feb. 19–21 in Decatur, Ala. The tour­na­ment will pit the Bulldogs against nation­ally top-ranked Alabama-Huntsville and fifth-ranked Indianapolis, among other top-ranked teams.

“We are def­i­nitely ready to take this pro­gram to the next level,” said Harrington. “We are a con­fi­dent team and we love the thrill of tak­ing on chal­leng­ing teams.”

Ferris will travel to Florida a week later to take part in the Florida Rebel Spring Tournament in Kissimmee, where the team will play against ninth-ranked California, Pa., along with 13 other teams dur­ing March 6–13.

The team will open the GLIAC sched­ule with a home match-up against Saginaw Valley State on March 31.