You didn’t have to attend a single Pella Christian softball season to conclude that their 2016 campaign was much better than their 2015 season. The team’s batting average went up by 32 points, the slugging percentage was up by 100, and their core pitching staff plus defense also showed improvement. One stat that really jumped out to Coach Karen Harrill was the number of home runs hit this year. In 32 games last summer, the Eagles hit two home runs, off the bats of Brooke Mitrisin and Courtney Johannes. In three fewer affairs, Pella Christian hit nine times as many balls out of the park. That’s 18 in case you couldn’t do the math. Five different players had at least one; Elizabeth Van Manen and Natalie Vos tied for the team lead with six each, Mitrisin had four, and Johannes and Chloe Dembski added one apiece. Harrill says it was the product of work in the offseason plus a lot of returning experience that led to better at-bats this season. Harrill will have almost all of that experience and more coming back for the 2017 season starting in late May of next year.