When it comes to league play, Jeff Hatfield's bunch has breathed new life into the "finders keepers, losers weepers" idiom.

Since 2008, the Big Walnut softball team has taken ownership of the OCC Capital Division. In 2010, it's harboring no intentions of relinquishing those rights.

"We've been fortunate enough to win it two years in a row and we don't want to give it back," said Hatfield, who's entering his fourth season as the Golden Eagles' coach and whose 54 wins in that span easily offset his 25 losses.

"Obviously, that's our first goal. It'll be a tall task at hand as tough as the league is this year."

Losing six seniors to graduation, including Division II first-team All-Ohio catcher Jordan Stanley and first-team all-league pitcher Amy Butts, will compound the difficulty.

But Big Walnut, which was 20-8 (11-1) a season ago, can call upon five letterwinners to ease the sting: senior Tara Johnson (center field), juniors Shelby Fink (shortstop), Tayler Nance (third base) and Tabatha Piper (pitcher), as well as sophomore Morgan Stephens (catcher).

Fink (.480, six home runs, 21 RBI) was first-team all-district and all-league, Nance (.309, 20 RBI) was a second-team all-leaguer and Piper (.362, 15 RBI) was honorable mention all-conference.

"We lost a lot of key players last year," Hatfield said. "We do have a really good, athletic team coming back, so I'm excited. I think we're going to be extremely young, but we do have that great athleticism and good team speed.

"Tab was our reserve pitcher behind Amy Butts, so in our key positions we've got key people coming back, it's just a matter of playing together."

Though a few saw sporadic time with the big club in 2009, more or less new to the varsity pastures are juniors Brittany Bok (second base), Carrie Borchers (right field), Leah Haines (left field), Alyssa Newman (infield) and Tara Belczak (infield), along with sophomores Emily Petty (first base-pitcher) and Rachel Darling (outfield).

When tossed in with the Eagles' relative old hats, they should help chip away at the barricades standing between BW and its top two spring aspirations.

"Every year our goal is always to compete for the league," Hatfield said. "Mount Vernon should be the front-runner; they are returning everyone. Hilliard Bradley and New Albany will be tough. It should be a balanced and extremely tough division this year.

"Our other goal every year is to win a district title; we've only had one in our program history, in 1988. Each of my four years we've went one game further."

To that end, last season's tournament run culminated with a 6-5 district-final loss to Canal Winchester. As Hatfield agonizingly noted, Big Nut led 5-0 before things went haywire.

But the past is the past, and the Eagles will start fresh in 2010 at Whetstone at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 1, and will host conference combatant Watkins Memorial at 5:15 p.m. Monday, April 5.

They'll make up Monday, March 29's postponement against visiting Cardington at 5 p.m. Friday, April 2.