Washington begins their season Monday in search of their 15th consecutive berth to the fast-pitch State tournament.

The team has been busy playing this summer and player positions haven’t quite been settled on just yet.

And with the amount of capable players looking for playing time, the starting lineup might look different at any different game.

“A good word for us is depth,” said Warrior head softball coach Tylor Lampkin. “We have plenty of depth at the defensive positions. Whoever is swinging a hot bat is probably who we’ll have in the field that day.”

Lampkin, who enters his fourth year at the helm of the program, said his players aren’t afraid to push each other in practice.

“You have to bring it every day or you’ll get left behind,” he said.

The Warriors’ seven seniors are a special group to the coach because they were freshmen on his first team at Washington.

“They were freshman when I got here,” Lampkin said. “They are all really good kids, it doesn’t get any better than them.”

This year’s seniors are Olivia Palumbo, Shelbie Caveness, Taylon Elliott, Mikala West, Ava Grimes, Addy Larman and Breanna Lindert.

They will fill the leadership role after the departure of last year’s seniors Alexis Gay, Halle Andrews, Bailey Hyde and Emjay Lucas, who led the Warriors to a 25-13 record.

Pitching staff

The one certainty in the field for the Warriors at this point will be Palumbo in the circle as the ace pitcher.

“Olivia will be the workhorse and anchor everything,” Lampkin said.

The coach said sophomore Ava Salcedo will provide some innings of work.

He also said he has two freshman arms in Abby Byrd and Ally Dennis.

“They are two young kids who can come in and do a lot for us,” Lampkin said.

Putting up runs

Offensively, the coach is very optimistic about the outlook of his team when they are at the plate.

He said he expects his team to be able to put up runs as the season progresses.

“Once we get rolling in the season I hope we can score a lot of runs,” Lampkin said. “We have a ton of speed and top to bottom we have a lot of power too.

“It’s going to be exciting. We have six or eight players who can hit a home run at any time.”

He said his goal will be to try to get at-bats for as many players as possible who are going to be able to help the program.

“Hungry”

Lampkin is excited about this team and said his ball club has a great attitude.

“They seem pretty eager and they’re willing to work,” he said. “They have great attitudes and give great effort. They seem to really like hanging out with each other.

“This group is hungry. They made it to the semi-final game last year in fast-pitch, they’ve been basketball runners-up the last two seasons and slow-pitch runners-up the last two years,” Lampkin said. “They got a good taste in their mouths after winning track State and they’ll want to continue that.”