The softball team played in the Holiday Inn/MSU Invitational Feb. 14-16, only dropping one game during the tournament. With seven freshman and six sophomores, the team is relatively young. Young teams typically lose however this team shows promise.
Head softball coach Brady Tigert said, “In high school they can get away with mistakes. You can’t get away with mistakes in college.”
Jennifer Quintero, freshman in athletic training, said, “There were teams that seemed to be thrown together in high school. In college everyone is competing for a spot to play.”
In college, players on your team and the other team are strong. It’s a lesson that the softball team is learning quickly. The team lost their first game of the season 4-5 to Valdosta State.
Tigert said, “I’ve got three All-Americans from last year and they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing. The ones that are making the mistakes are the young ones. They’ve got to have some experience, they’ve got to settle in. They’re scared to death up there sometimes. It’s just because they’re new, and every one of them go through it.”
In the team’s last game Saturday night against Northeastern State University, Quintero got her first hit, a triple, of the season and her collegiate career. Transitioning from high school Quintero was intimidated by college pitchers.
Quintero said, “It boosted my confidence to get a hit like that as my first hit. I did go in there just thinking I know I’m a decent player.”
Base-running errors were a problem for the team. In the first game one player tried to stretch a single into double and got thrown out. The next player that went up hit a homerun. Tigert said, “That cost me a run. We went extra innings in that ballgame. That one run would have won the game instead of lose it. It was all base running that cost me the game.”
Haley Howerton, undecided sophomore, said, “In the first game we weren’t thinking and we didn’t know where ball was.”
The team has learned since then and with their recent results show they worked on base-running. “Now it’s more of, ’how do we stop them from scoring?’”, Tigert said.
Katherine Batey, sophomore in exercise physiology, said, “Right now these tournaments are a warm-up for the season. They count for our record but not in conference.”
In the young season the softball team has played in two tournaments and come away with a 8-4 record. Tigert said, “We’re young. All four loses are obviously our fault, but all four loses, in my opinion, should be wins. The other teams didn’t beat us, we lost those games. We’re better than what the record shows.”
