Due to bad field conditions caused by the recent storms in Southern California, the softball team has canceled its last two home games.
If the weather allows and the field recovers, EC will face Mt. SAC today at 3 p.m. in what will be its last home game until March 23. EC missed its game against East L.A. on Tuesday and the game versus Glendale last Friday. The game versus ELAC was rescheduled for Friday at 3 p.m.
The last game played by the Warriors was on Feb. 24 at Long Beach City. The game ended 2-0 in favor of the home team, making EC’s conference record 0-5 and 7-8 overall. Despite the loss, assistant coach Bill Hood saw some positive aspects to the game.
“With Long Beach, we played more as a team,” Hood said. “There was very good moral, I didn’t see any long faces in the dugout.”
Errors in the defense like over throwing the ball and an inability to hit when it’s most important have caused the team to lose its conference games.
“We need to work both on our offense and our defense,” Hood said. “We’ve lost because of a one-error inning. That cost us to lose the game.”
“We probably just need to work more on fundamentals, like every other team,” freshman Leslie Higgins said. “Repetition is the key to winning games.”
Despite having good hitters, the offense isn’t scoring many runs leaving runners stranded on base. Against Long Beach, EC had three hits while Long Beach had five.
“We play good defensively and everyone communicates really well,” Higgins said. “Everyone can also hit the ball very well.”
Despite the bad results, Hood knows that he’s working with a team full of talent and that the women just need to show it on the field.
With only four returning players and a team not affected by injuries, the team is hoping to improve its third-place ranking from last year, which kept it out of the playoffs.
“We missed the playoffs by one game last year,” Hood said. “This year we have thirteen players in all and a lot of them are new”
“This is the best team I have been in,” Hood said. “We have good hitters, but we seem to be in a slump.”
What happens in the last two rounds of conference play is crucial to playoff hopes.
“We gotta have a good second round,” coach Susan Calderon said “every team is much more better this year than before.”
“The great thing about our team is that everyone works hard.” Calderon said “There is a very positive attitude during practice and at the games. This group of women work great as a team.” Calderon said.
