Manhattan lost pitcher Meagan Elgas, catcher Adele Didriksen and first baseman Sierra Blanchard to graduation. The trio were all starters a year ago, and Didriksen and Blanchard each belted three home runs.

Elgas was the team’s No. 1 pitcher throughout her prep career, beginning in 2019. She graduated as the program’s all-time leader in wins (25) as well as losses (23) in three years (remember, 2020 was canceled due to Covid) and finished with a 7-7 record last year.

“It hurts to lose a senior like Meagan because Meagan come in and we’d know what we’d get from her,” said Cygan. “She threw strikes. She was never a question mark.”

The Tigers do return a strong pitching staff, however. Junior Emma Kabalin will likely take over as the team’s ace, while sophomore Morgan Pavlik should also see plenty of action.

Kabalin was 8-4 in the circle a year ago and stepped up big in the postseason after Elgas suffered a season-ending injury in the team’s first game of the divisional tournament. Manhattan went 3-2 at divisional and 1-2 at state.

“Emma and Morgan Pavlik will probably be doing most of the pitching. It’s early to tell, but that’s my guess,” said Cygan. “She’s (Kabalin) been working hard in the offseason, so it’s good.”

This year’s team has just two seniors — Morgan Friese and Danielle Nolan — three juniors, six sophomores and five freshmen.

“We’re kind of light on seniors this year for sure,” said Cygan. “We’re kind of junior and sophomore loaded.”

Among the junior class are Paige Ballantyne and Delaney Doherty, a pair of starters from a year ago. Returning sophomores include starters Camdyn Holgate and Zohy O’Rourke.

The catching duties, Cygan said, will likely be split between Holgate and O’Rourke. Holgate started most of last year at shortstop en route to earning second team all-conference honors.

Other returners include sophomores Rylee Gault, Aalla Matheson and Abby Samuel.

“Five of them (the sophomore class) saw a lot of playing time last year,” noted Cygan. “Out of the juniors all three of them played too, so we got about eight returning starters.”

Manhattan posted its third consecutive winning season a year ago and set program records for wins and home runs (24). Pavlik set a single season record for home runs with nine, while Holgate had four.

League-wise, the competition once again is stacked. Defending state champion Florence-Carlton and last year’s runner, St. Ignatius-Arlee-Charlo (also known as MAC), return talented teams in the Western Division.

“I expect MAC to be the team to beat this year,” said Cygan. “They played in the championship game last year and they were strong, they were really strong. I think they only lost one player.”

The 12-team division also welcomes a new program in Three Forks.

“It will be a battle all year. It’ll be a competitive and we got to get the right people in the right places by the end of the year and I think we’ll be fine. I think we should be challenging by the end of the year,” said Cygan. “The goal is same as always, win conference, win divisionals, win state, but there’s some strong teams out there and there’s some good pitchers.”

Manhattan is scheduled to begin the season March 28 at Three Forks. Its home opener is two days later against Belgrade’s JV.

But, Cygan said, it’s unlikely the school’s new softball field, which was built this past fall, will be ready for the home opener. Thus, the Tigers may be playing their first couple of home games in Taylor Park, which has served as their home base the past four seasons.

“It will be nice when we get going over there. I don’t think we’re going to be able to start the year over there though,” Cygan said. “I think we got a lot of stuff still to do and the weather’s not helping them get things done … so we’ll be starting probably at Taylor Park I’m guessing for a few weeks.”