The ink from Wally King’s highlighter was still wet when he tacked the preseason Big East rankings to the wall at the start of the season. As Syracuse’s softball players trickled into the locker room before practice, they were drawn to their hitting coach’s newest addition to the team bulletin board.

King highlighted SU at second place. Despite winning the Big East tournament the previous two seasons, the Orange was voted to finish one spot behind DePaul in the conference’s preseason coaches’ poll.

‘It gave players a little extra push,’ King said, ‘to know that there are people out there that still don’t believe we can win it again. I wanted to make sure they saw it.’

Syracuse (34-11, 11-3 Big East) has a chance to prove it deserved that top spot Wednesday, when it plays two games in Chicago against DePaul (27-17, 8-6 Big East). The preseason favorite Blue Demons now sit in fifth place.

Only South Florida and Louisville have better records than the third-place Orange this season. But head coach Leigh Ross said her players look at the two upcoming games against DePaul as a chance to prove those rankings were wrong.

‘We feel we can beat anyone,’ Ross said, ‘so we looked at it as a slap in the face.’

Outfielder Lisaira Daniels echoed Ross’ sentiment. She said after two impressive seasons that saw the Orange take the conference tournament title, she couldn’t believe SU was only chosen second-best in the conference.

And she couldn’t figure out why it was DePaul who was ranked above the Orange. DePaul hasn’t beaten Syracuse since May 8, 2010.

In 2010, SU defeated DePaul 3-2 in the Big East tournament semifinals when it won its first Big East tournament championship. Last season, Syracuse defeated DePaul 2-0 en route to its second straight conference title.

‘The same teams – Louisville, Notre Dame, South Florida and DePaul – are always ahead of us when those rankings come out,’ Daniels said. ‘We don’t know what else we can do to show we belong.’

Daniels and her teammates can start silencing the doubters by beating the team picked ahead of them Wednesday.

The Orange has won each of the six series they’ve played in this season. And with aces Jenna Caira and Stacy Kuwik dominating opposing hitters this month, SU has won 14 of its last 16 games.

Caira said to win Wednesday’s doubleheader, her teammates must exercise patience against the pinpoint accuracy of DePaul’s ace, Kirsten Verdun.

‘She (Verdun) won’t overpower you, but she’ll hit her spots and she has good movement,’ Caira said. ‘She’s a good pitcher who’ll control your at-bat if you let her.’

Caira said she was looking forward to the matchup against DePaul, but she’s not the only one. Ross said facing off against DePaul head coach Eugene Lenti, a Hall of Famer, is a little more meaningful. Lenti helped guide the Blue Demons to the College World Series in 2005 and 2007.

Beating Lenti’s DePaul team would vault Syracuse into position to be considered an elite conference team, Ross said.

‘Ultimately, he is a Hall of Famer that gets great recruits and great players,’ Ross said. ‘Whenever you can beat a team like DePaul, it means you deserve to be a part of the discussion.’

Though the SU coaches and players respect the Blue Demons and their successful program, they feel they’re better this season. And they’re excited to prove it Wednesday.

‘People want us to be the underdogs, so we’ll show them that we’re not,’ Daniels said. ‘We’ll show them that we can be one of the top teams in the country.’

nctoney@syr.edu

Published on April 24, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Nick: nctoney@syr.edu | @nicktoneytweets