SB Commits 5 Errors; Lose 4-3

The M SB team committed 5 errors in the 2nd Inning today.  This led to a 4-3 loss against DePaul at the NFCA Tourney in Clearwater Florida.  The weather was 79F and cloudy.  Sometimes there are ugly wins and pretty loses but an ugly loss is tough to take.  It will be a long trip back to A2.  We beat #12 UL@Layfayette convincingly this trip so that should take the sting away a little.

DePaul scored all of their 4 runs in the 2nd inning.  Of the 4 runs, only 1 was earned.  Sara pitched a good game but Coach pulled her after 1 2/3 innings in favor of Spierman.  Stephanie scattered 5 hits, struck out 1 and walked none (2 HBP though).  Sara has carried the entire load thus far.  So Im sure Coach wanted to give her a rest even though she was on her game.

Sara ended up with the loss although she pitched very well.  In any other game, her performance would be good enough to garner the W.  She gave up 1 ER of 4 hits and 1 BB.  Good Job Sara and a great job by Stephanie coming on in a difficult situation to keep DePaul in check.  It is nice to see this.

Now the errors cost us the game for sure.  However, I will give the kids a pass on this one.  We have 2 freshmen in the critical middle infield.  This was bound to happen just unfortuenly for us, we made consecutive errors and just could not recover.  The freshmen are certainly feeling down and hanging there heads low.  But these are FRESHMEN playing on the biggest stage for the GREATEST Coach.  These freshmen have got to be nervoous.  The key is how they come back next week and perform.  That is the measure of a true champion (IMO).

The offense was good enough for the win scoring 3 runs on 5 hits.  Sierra Lawerence went 2 for 4 and an RBI.  Sierra Romero and Amy Knapp both went 1 for 3 with a run scored.  Caitlyn had the other hit.  Sara recorded an RBI as well.

So overall this weekend was good, not great.  We continue to perform at a high level dispite having our other starting pitcher on the bench.  Coach will contiue to develop the freshmen and we will get better.  Once Haylie comes back, look out.