Staff photo / Brian Yauger Mathews’ Gianna Toto beats a throw to the plate Monday night against Badger

VERNON — Meet the new Mustangs, same as the old Mustangs.

Taking a quick peek at the Mathews softball roster, things look quite different. No Ashley Deans, no Bella Spano and no Jim Nicula.

This season, there’s a handful of returning players paired with a brand new cast, including a litany of freshmen and an entirely new coaching staff. Take one glance at their record however, and you’d never know anything changed.

Heading into the homestretch of the regular season, Mathews sits at 14-3 on the year and is an unblemished 10-0 in league play. Most recently, the Mustangs racked up a 13-0 win over Badger on Monday.

Led by senior pitcher Emma Gates and freshman Olivia Matheny, the latter of whom is hitting .620 on the season, Mathews is eyeing big things this year. More accurately, first-year Mustangs coach Thomas VanKirk is trying to keep the train rolling.

Another thing that’s similar about this Mustangs group is their attitude. The team has always had a swagger to them, and that hasn’t changed this year.

It’s not out of arrogance, it’s just a love of the game that shows whenever you watch them. They bring a boombox to road games with walkup songs for each girl – mostly early 2000s rap, for those that are curious – and that’s by design. First and foremost, VanKirk wants the girls to be themselves and have fun.

“Basically, I want the girls to be themselves and have fun, but be disciplined,” he said. “I’m hard on them when I need to be, but I really let them own their team. That’s why we’re so energetic in our warm ups, and if you’re there early enough to watch us, our girls run all the warm ups, the coaches do very little.

“Everybody has an ownership stake in the team and my job is just to keep them focused. They’re buying into everything, so that makes it easy for me.”

To VanKirk, having Gates on the team is like having an additional coach out there. The senior pitcher-catcher duo of Gates and Kaylen McCollum are pretty much like having two extra coaches out on the field at all times.

“Emma is special,” VanKirk said. “On and off the field, that kid is the real deal. Everything from the respect for the game, for teammates, coaches, just a genuinely solid human being. Talent-wise, if there’s a better pitcher in the state of Ohio, there’s only a handful. She’s talented, she has multiple pitches, she never gets rattled. Honestly, all the cliches you’d say about a good player and a kid, she’s got it.

“At her young age, she’s basically one of our coaches. She’s right in there with us. Any team decisions that are made, basically go through her and Kaylen as our team captains. They’re extremely mature.”

In the circle, the Fairmont State commit has lit things up, recording 127 strikeouts so far while surrendering 42 hits and only 12 earned runs.

Matheny has made her impact known in a short time as well. In addition to her batting average, she also leads the team with 31 hits, 22 RBIs, nine doubles and five home runs. While acknowledging she still has a long development path ahead of her, VanKirk sees a budding superstar in his freshman.

“(Olivia) is a special player,” VanKirk said. “She’s talented, and she’s very positive and coachable as well. She’s got a long way to go and she’s already this good. I’ve coached literally hundreds of players, and she’s definitely one of the very best hitters I’ve ever coached. Especially for being so young.”

Mathews rounds out its regular season with road contests today and tomorrow at Chalker and Windham, then closes the year out at home against Grand Valley the following Monday. Expect them to use these games, and the remaining league games that need rescheduled, to hone in on things that need done before

‘”We just need to keep working on the things that we worked on,” VanKirk said. “We haven’t had a lot of practice lately because of the weather and getting games in, but we have to clean up a few things. Add some plays and work in some situations, but basically, they just need to play like they’ve been playing lately. One play at a time. You know, we’re hitting a pretty good stride right now.”

Their first tournament game will be in the sectional bracket final against the winner of Bloomfield and Ashtabula St. John after receiving the No. 1 seed in their district bracket. A win will send them to the districts, now hosted by league rival Badger, as opposed to the Candlelite Knolls site that it’s been the past few years.