After a string of bad luck, mental errors and a unexpected losing streak, the women end their first round of conference play with a loss to Mt. San Antonio College.
The loss now gives the softball team an overall record of 2-15 and 0-5 in conference games. However there are high hopes when the women travel to Long Beach City College today at 3 p.m.
Last Thursday, during the game against Pasadena City College third baseman/pitcher Cassie McMillian was hit in the face after foul-tipping a ball and was unable to duck out of the way.
McMillian was shaken up to the point of not being able to return to the game.
Due to the injury, the team was left with only eight players, therefore, the women had to forfeit the game because they did not have enough players.
The women traveled and played in The Golden West Tournament this past weekend, managing to win one game, but losing three games.
The women have faced five hard games in the last three weeks, but are confident that they will make big changes in the second round of their conference games, pitcher Dani Morvice said.
“We need to stop thinking about the past and concentrate on the games that are ahead of us,” left fielder Rachel Ramirez said.
Mental errors are still causing the women to their games during one inning fallout.
The team keeps making the same mistakes every time, coach Susie Calderon said.
“There’s no excuse for these mistakes anymore, we keep taking ourselves out of each game,” Calderon said.
During the fourth inning, the Mounties managed to score three runs, but the Warriors were doing their job holding them from bringing in more runs.
The Warriors responded quickly and had a great fifth inning when center fielder Atalie Quesada brought in a run, giving the women a chance to come back.
“We played hard for six innings, one inning went bad for us,” Morvice said.
With only two walks by pitcher Dani Morvice and down by three runs, the women couldn’t stay in the game, and had a complete breakdown during the seventh inning.
“Only one inning took us out. I don’t understand why we are still letting one bad inning affect the whole outcome of the game,” Calderon said.
At the top of the seventh inning there was pitching replacement with McMillian coming in for Morvice.
With hard hitting by Mt. SAC and mistakes from EC, the Mounties were able to bring in nine runs to end the game 13-1.
“It’s not up to us anymore, the women need to start doing their job,” Calderon said.
Even though the Warriors have not won any conference games, they stay motivated and know that they have a lot of potential on the team.
“We know tomorrow is another day. We have to improve our game and do better next time,” Ramirez said. “We know we have the talent to do so we just have to do it.”
“We just have to play harder as a team and start winning some games,” Calderon said.
