First step back towards greatness begins Monday for Mules softball

The anticipation for the Bernie High School varsity softball season this spring is almost palpable. The Mules are coming off their most successful year in program history and return every starter with the exception of catcher Abby Powell, who graduated.

“I definitely think that they are anxious to get going,” veteran Bernie coach Brad Botsch said, “and see what we can do when the season gets here.”

Well, it’s “here.”

The first day of spring athletic practices will be Monday, and Botsch will have his team on the diamond shortly after school ends.

“These are good kids,” Botsch said. “They are hard-working kids. They want to at least duplicate and hopefully do better than what we did last year.”

Which was pretty spectacular.

Bernie won 22 games last spring and advanced to the MSHSAA Class 1 Final Four (the Mules finished fourth) for the first time in program history.

The Mules return starting pitchers Blair Pleimling (over 100 innings pitched) and Mikalyn Kirkwood (over 50 innings pitched). Both are juniors.

“Blair is a strike thrower,” Botsch said last season of his top thrower, “and if we make plays behind her, we’re going to give ourselves a chance.”

Pleimling won 15 games and struck out over 70 batters.

Offensively, the Mules return senior twins Macie Botsch (center field) and Kerri Botsch (right field).

Macie stole 63 bases and walked 39 times last spring while her sister hit .500.

Bernie senior Kealea Powell (left field) returns after hitting .351 as a junior.

Powell, who will play volleyball at Crowley’s Ridge next fall, drove in 18 runs on 27 hits and stole 24 bases.

Junior Alexa Dillinger (.444 batting average) will play second base again while senior Rylie Powell (27 hits, 31 RBI, 30 stolen bases) will line up at shortstop.

Kirkwood (30 hits, 43 RBI, 20 walks) will play third base when not throwing and junior Mackenzie Meese (17 hits, 16 RBI, 10 stolen bases) will play first base.

Bernie junior Kalli Mason (17 walks, 21 stolen bases) can play middle infield this spring and brings speed to the Mule lineup.

“We’ve got the bulk of our kids back,” Botsch said. “We anticipate and expect to have a good year.

“That is lip service until you put in the work and do it.”

The Mules have been training for three hours each week since the beginning of 2025, and Botsch explained that his team’s philosophy for each session is to have “perfect practice.”

“We call it perfect practice,” Botsch explained. “We want to have perfect practice, so when you get into games, your reps will take care of themselves. What you are used to doing, the muscle memory takes care of itself.”