Sophomore Joanna Krienitz will get the start in the circle Thursday afternoon against Northern Colorado. (Image: Jeff Taylor)

EL PASO, Texas – The adobe colored field has been dragged and the foul lines have been chalked. Finally, the UTEP women’s softball team will ease their anticipation as they begin the season Thursday at the Helen of Troy Softball Complex.

With the first pitch set for 3 p.m. against Northern Colorado, UTEP co-head coaches James and Kathleen Rodriguez will be using the first two games as a bench mark for the team as they enter the season.

“The biggest thing is to try to see what we look like early,” Kathleen Rodriguez said. “Trying to see what we can be.”

The Miners are coming off their most successful season in program history, finishing 31-24 and 11-13 in Conference USA play. Even more impressive was UTEP’s 15-4 home record. Despite that, the team fell short in the conference tournament and finished sixth out of nine teams in the final conference standings.

Despite falling short of some team goals last year, one goal remains the same: reach and win the conference championship this year. As a reminder of this goal, the date of “5-4-11” is on the left sleeve of every player’s practice shirt.

“This [date on t-shirt] is when the conference championship is,” freshman Laura Ramos said, pointing to her sleeve. “Our coach put it on our t-shirts as a goal for us to go to conference and win the conference.”

Achieving that goal won’t be an easy task, but UTEP returns 12 players including the preseason pick forConference USA Player of the Year, Cami Carrera. During Carrera’s junior year, she hit .376 with six home runs and 42 RBI, leading to a Louisville Slugger/NFCA All-Midwest Region selection.

As she enters this season, she will not only have the obstacle of facing every opponent’s pitching but she will also have to deal with a back injury that had her sidelined for all of the fall season. After undergoing surgery in the off-season, she is back at full health. Her only challenge physically will be how she deals with the nagging pain and limited flexibility.

Carrera, who will be the team’s captain, is one of four seniors on a very young Miner team. UTEP loses two key components from last year’s team in Stacie Townsend and Ashley Ellis, who both graduated, but regain Becky Smith who was lost last year with a torn ACL. Kia Moore and Courtney Auger round out the senior class.

The youth of the team comes in the form of five new additions this season. Samantha Alvillar, Megan Atchison, Kayla Black, Camille Herrera and Ramos will play vital roles on this year’s team. Alvillar and Herrera will help with Miners with their infield depth, while Ramos, Atchison will carry the team with their arms as they all can pitch. Black, at this moment, is a multi-level threat as she can pitch, throw and hit, well.

Despite being picked to finish towards the bottom of the conference standings by coaches in C-USA, the Miners are poised to make a run in 2011. Rodriguez is well aware of the challenges the team faces this season.

“I think that we are going to go through some growing pains here for a little while,” Rodriguez said. “We have a lot of youth at some really, really important positions. They are excited though.”

As for now, the Miners are excited to finally get the season started and face another team that does not wear blue and orange. For the freshman on the team its a dream come true.

“I am so excited because I’ve waited for this since I started playing softball,” Atchison said. “I always told my parents I wanted to play college softball and then it’s finally here. It feels like its zoomed by, it’s the most exciting time right now.”

Alex Morales may be reached at show@minerillustrated.com.