SHORELINE — Bring on the corny catchphrases.

“From worst to first.” Or better yet, “From the cellar to stellar.”

At one point or another this season, the Shoreline Community College fastpitch softball team is going to hear them all.

And that’s just fine with the Dolphins, who have skyrocketed to the upper half of the league standings after spending the last few years entrenched in the pit of the NWAACC North Division.

With its glistening 8-3 start to the regular season, Shoreline (12-3 overall) appears headed for its first winning season since 1998 and — gasp — a trip to the playoffs.

“My whole goal is to try and turn this program around,” assistant coach Paul Smiley said. “Shoreline has been in the cellar for a long, long time.”

So long in fact that the team’s overnight turnaround has floored family, friends and faculty.

“This is a big surprise to everybody,” freshman pitcher Katy Barstad-Whitlow said.

Barstad-Whitlow is part of a well-rounded recruiting class Smiley and fifth-year head coach Chip Romain expect will help the program regain its footing and contend for a division title.

That optimism gained some momentum when the players introduced themselves at the first team meeting.

“When we first got together and everybody said where they were from, I think a lot of us had known about each other and heard good things about each other,” freshman catcher Toni Brickell said. “We knew we had a lot of good talent and that we just needed to put it together.”

Barstad-Whitlow and Brickell had played on the same summer team but didn’t know any of the other recruits.

“We’d read each other’s names in the newspaper,” Barstad-Whitlow said. “So when we finally got the opportunity to get together and practice we thought, ‘Whoa, this is going to be fun. These girls can play.’”

In their first 13 games, the Dolphins have outscored their opponents 114-41. Barstad-Whitlow and freshman Natasha Lindsey are sporting a combined 2.59 ERA and have struck out 69 batters in 72 innings.

“I think we probably have the two best pitchers in the league,” Smiley said.

Last year, Barstad-Whitlow led Mountlake Terrace to its seventh straight postseason appearance and Lindsey paced Thomas Jefferson to the semifinals of the Class 4A state championships.

“They’re completely different,” Smiley said. “Katy’s a fastball, dropball, riseball pitcher — a lot of speed. Natasha is fast, but she hits her corners. She’s a very good control pitcher. She’s able to hit wherever she wants.”

While Lindsey tends to rely on her offspeed pitches, Barstad-Whitlow takes a more aggressive approach. Their differing styles have limited hitters to a lowly .203 average.

“(Lindsey) has more pitches than I do,” Barstad-Whitlow said. “She throws more of a mixture. I throw straightforward power pitches.”

In a doubleheader sweep of Skagit Valley last week, Shoreline surpassed last season’s entire run production. The Dolphins are hitting .396 as a team and a sizzling .565 with runners in scoring position.

Infielder Rachel Girello leads Shoreline with 17 hits and a .486 batting average. One of three returners from 2002, second baseman Mary Hathaway is hitting .486 and boasts a team-high .613 on-base percentage.

Brickell is hitting .417 and leads the Dolphins with 18 RBI. The Shorecrest graduate smacked the first official home run at the new Shoreview Park field in Shoreline’s North Division opener last month.

First baseman/catcher Chris McDaniels, shortstop/ second baseman Jeannette Boyd and Lindsey were all hitting .400 or better heading into this week’s games.

Sophomore center fielder Miho Kashimura is hitting .344 from the top of the order and leads the Dolphins with 13 stolen bases.

Shoreline opened the season with four non-conference wins in Orlando, Fla., including a 3-2 victory over the College of DuPage — a participant in last year’s National Junior College Athletic Association Division III tournament.

“When we got to Florida and I saw how we were playing … I didn’t think at that point there was a team (there) that could beat us,” Smiley said.

Last week, the Dolphins split a set of games against two teams picked to finish ahead of them in the North Division preseason coaches poll.

Lindsey improved to 7-1 overall by recording both wins in a doubleheader against Green River April 5. Highline swept two games from Shoreline April 6 to remain in first place with Edmonds.

As of Tuesday’s results, Shoreline was alone in fourth place in the North. The Dolphins host Olympic at 1 p.m. today and play at Edmonds at 1 p.m. April 12.

“We knew we had the opportunity to be good,” Smiley said. “But we didn’t know how far we could go with it.”