After seeing a promising 2020 season ended abruptly in March due to the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic, Austin Peay State University's softball team heads into the 2021 season with high expectations and a work ethic to match. This is 'Dugout Dish' a blog where each student-athlete on the team will take an opportunity to write a post highlighting the goings on of the squad, beginning with fall training and continuing all the way through the 2021 season.

Hello Govs family, I am Madison Berner. I am a freshman outfielder from Clarksville, Tennessee. I am also majoring in biology.

Although this is my first year as a Governor, I feel like I have been here for longer with how welcoming everybody is on the team. I am thankful to have chosen a place that feels like a home away from home.

After wrapping up my first offseason with Austin Peay softball I have learned a lot.

When being a part of this team, I learned to have more self-discipline and always work harder than you did the day before.

Every weekday we have 6 a.m. workouts, with our awesome strength coach, Justin Lowe. After that, depending on whether we are in 20 hours or eight hours of team activities, we will have an individual or team practice after.

On top of softball, we have to be disciplined with our schoolwork and make sure we turn in everything on time.

Thankfully with our academic advisor, Katie Ethridge, she helps us on Mondays and Wednesdays with study hall for two hours and makes sure we have everything turned in on time.

A couple of days before Thanksgiving, we were able to go home to see our families and finish the semester online.

Although Austin Peay is in the same town I am from, it has been hard to see my family because of their work schedule and my busy schedule. I am thankful to be home for a little bit to see my family and hometown friends.

During break it has been hard to sit still because of how on the go we were all offseason. However, I have also been able to utilize this time off to get better and come back stronger.

We also just received our new Wilson gloves over break which I am excited to break in and use for this upcoming season. We got to personalize them the way we wanted with our last name and number on them.

Overall, I am excited to be a part of Austin Peay softball as it has already taught me so much and brought so many new friends. I can't wait to see what the future has in store for Team 36, Go Govs!