Feb. 18, 2026 | Isaac Garcia | Sports Editor
This Saturday, the Wolves softball team hosts its first home game of the season in a doubleheader against Bushnell University at 11 a.m. The Wolves have already gotten started this season, however, and are currently at 4-6 going into their home opener. On Feb. 8, the team wrapped up their time at the D2 West Collegiate Classic with an 8-0 win against Regis, putting them at 3-2 overall through the tournament.
First-year pitcher Braeli Martin was particularly impressive against Regis, pitching a shutout and helping keep Regis from ever advancing past second base. Senior Lexi Baumgartner, who boasted a two-run homerun, and Haley Homan, a first-year outfielder, received All-Tournament team honors. “My mentality all weekend was to attack the pitches left over the middle of the plate and believe in myself,” Baumgartner said.
Outfielder Madelynne Hommel is also having an amazing start to her season with a .469 batting average and currently leads the team with 15 hits. When asked about what changes she’s made to allow her to start the season at such a high level, Hommel said the biggest improvement she’s seen is in her mindset, and she’s gone from a defensive to an offensive approach. She also credited her faith, saying, “I think the biggest place I continue to see improvement is in my trust that God alone is my strength and that He will have His way no matter who I am playing against.”
This season is a bit of a rebuild for the Wolves after a 13-37 record last season which put them in last for the GNAC. This year’s team is also fairly young, having only three seniors on the entire roster. Of those seniors is Victoria Zimmerman from Ellensburg, Washington, who led the team in hits last season with 46 and made the All-GNAC second team in the outfield. In addition, Zimmerman tacked on eight RBI and held a batting average of .319. As previously mentioned, Lexi Baumgartner’s numbers on the season show a significant improvement so far, jumping from a .258 batting average in 2025 to a .323 batting average in the first ten games of 2026. Baumgartner also has three home runs this season already, which surpasses her total from last year. Finally, the third senior on the team is Emma Cordero in the utility position. So far in 2026, Cordero has a .267 batting average and four hits on the year. Of course, the leadership of the upperclassmen is important on a team so young. “As a leader I have learned that the best relationships start from genuinely being kind and open-minded,” said Lexi Baumgartner. Baumgartner added, “I have enjoyed (the new players’) want and passion to be better themselves. We have a talented new group that has a desire to better themselves for our success.”
Hommel added that she feels that working with younger players is among the best parts of a new team each season and that the younger players in the program teach the upperclassmen a lot themselves such as how to be better leaders and athletes. As for the coaching staff, the Wolves are led by fourth year coach Aly Boytz. Boytz is a former pitcher for the Wolves and had a record of 13-8 when pitching for Western. While only in her fourth year in the head coaching role after taking over midseason in an interim role back in 2023, Boytz is in her tenth season overall as a coach for the Wolves having served in an assistant role starting in 2016. Rounding out the staff is assistant coach Tyler Smith, who enters his first season with the team as a coach and graduate assistant Isabelle Lewis who was on the team last year as an infielder. Lewis had 36 hits last season and 27 RBI. As for Smith, he comes over from UC Riverside where he was an assistant coach focused on infielders and hitters. Smith’s father, Mike Smith, was the Mississippi softball head coach from 2015-2019 and won an SEC championship in 2017. In August, coach Boytz expressed her excitement of adding Smith to the coaching staff, saying, “He comes from a strong softball background and a family deeply rooted in the game. His passion for developing student-athletes on and off the field makes him a great fit for our program. We can’t wait to welcome him to campus.” His impact has definitely been felt so far, with coach Boytz adding, “I think Tyler has done a great job with our hitters and that’s obviously being shown with Hommel and Baumgartner’s performances, but I think his dedication to our hitters and wanting them to get better and doing everything on the back end of scouting reports and watching video of opponents and of our players in their swings has obviously had a huge impact.”
Boytz also commended the job Lewis has done, saying, “And then for Isabelle, she was in the program for five years so it’s just nice to have a familiar face for the players but she’s done great with everything. She kind of just helps out anywhere that’s needed so she kind of does a little bit of everything.”
In addition to having a young roster, the coaching staff is also on the younger side in terms of a collegiate coaching staff. However, the staff continues to learn. Coach Boytz explained, “I think for our staff specifically, we have the opportunity to go to the softball coaching convention in December. So that’s huge because that’s just where all other coaches from different divisions are giving presentations of drills and things that worked for them or didn’t work for them. So that’s huge and then just having your network of people outside of Western. Having either coaches you played for or just from within the business and getting different insights and outlooks on things is huge.”
For anyone making their way to any Wolves softball games this season, expect to see a close knit team that plays hard and plays for each other. When asked what fans should know about the team this season, Hommel described the team as “level-headed and resilient” and that they’ll never let another team beat them mentally. On Saturday, the first game of the doubleheader will take place at the WOU Softball Field at 11 a.m with the second one following shortly thereafter at 1 p.m. The Wolves’ next home game will be March 6 in another doubleheader against Simon Fraser, which will open GNAC conference play for the 2026 season.
Contact the author at Howlsports@mail.wou.edu
