• Santa Clara softball opens the 2022 season on Friday at the NorCal Kickoff, co-hosted by UC Davis and Sacramento State.
• The Broncos play a total of five games over three days, starting with Friday's season opener at UC Davis.  The remainder of Santa Clara's games will be played at Shea Stadium on the campus of Sacramento State with two games on Saturday and two more on Sunday.  
• SCU, under third-year head coach Gina Carbonatto, enters the season picked to finish fourth in the West Coast Conference as voted on by the six conference head coaches. 
• Santa Clara finished the 2021 campaign with an 8-20 record including 5-10 in WCC play.
• A full schedule is on the docket for the 2022 season.  Among the 51 regular season games, 20 will be played at Santa Clara Softball Stadium, 18 true road games and 13 neutral site contests.  The Broncos will play seven games against four teams – BYU, Fresno State, Iowa State and Stanford – that competed in the NCAA Tournament last season.  
• The Broncos field an experienced squad with 15 returnees including 13 that played in 2021 and two that last played in 2020.  
• Six newcomers dot the roster - Lauren Bryson, Abigail Charpentier, Sage Hager, Kelsi Rice, Morgan Salmon and Nina Taylor.
• The top three hitters from 2021 return - Ashley Trierweiler (program record .481 batting average), Emma Bickford (.329) and Allyson Ferreira (.282).  Sammy Needham, who hit .394 in 2020 but did not play last season returns in 2022. 
• Trierweiler and Bickford were named preseason All-WCC as vote on by the league's six head coaches.  
• In the circle, the Broncos return all five pitchers from 2021 plus Hannah Edwards who last pitched in 2020 where she appeared in 11 games, going 3-6 with a 3.31 ERA.    

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"Overall, we really have a good team culture," said Broncos head coach Gina Carbonatto.  "All the players take care of each other really well - they hang out, live together, challenge and hold each other accountable, so we have a culture of caring people that will help us produce positive results both on and off the field.  And we have a deeper lineup than we've ever had since I've been here which will give us the ability to have a different lineup every game.  We have a lot players that need to be in the lineup and deserve playing time which is very exciting.  I get to be creative with offensive lineups and defensive pairings to make sure we are firing on as many cylinders at the same time."