Softball team ready to compete on real grass
The Utah State University softball team will get to leave the snow to begin their preseason when they travel to Arizona this weekend for a round-robin tournament.
Competition will be Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the sun against New Mexico State University and Arizona State University, followed by two more games against the University of Kansas and Southwest Texas State University, and will finish by playing the University of California, Los Angeles, respectively.
This season the Aggies have been practicing indoors which poses a couple of problems and makes the trip to Arizona even better, Head Coach Debbie Bilbao said.
“It’s always good to get real ground balls and get real fly balls that don’t have fluorescent light above them,” Bilbao said. “The girls can’t wait to get out of the snow. They’re ready to play.”
Not only will these be the Aggies’ first games on actual grass this season, but it will also be their first games under the direction of Bilbao, who recently took the position as head coach.
Being new, Bilbao has asked her team to change some habits- not only personally, but academically as well, she said, and she is happy with what they’ve done.
“I’m so thrilled with this group,” Bilbao said. “They’re a lot of fun to be around. They’ve bought into our philosophy as a coaching staff. I can’t imagine my life without them right now.”
Of the 17 women on Bilbao’s team, only four are playing in their first season at USU.
This makes her even more excited about the way her team has trusted her, Bilbao said, because there are 13 women who were used to a different style of coaching.
“They’re a pretty tight knit group. They’ve been through a lot together in the last few years,” she said. “Certainly I’m relying upon their leadership and their experience to guide the young kids and to really make their way as a team.”
Aside from the group leadership, Bilbao said she is looking at three players to guide the team.
Senior catcher Breanne Nickle Smith, junior third base Stephanie Vasarhely and senior shortstop Heather Curtis are great ball players and each have different traits that will help the Aggies enormously, she said.
The Aggies are also counting on their defense, which Bilbao said is the team’s greatest strength right now, to help them through the round robin. But, she said, USU doesn’t want to get too tied up with playing good defense.
“Defense keeps you in games and offense wins games,” Bilbao said.