Softball spends spring break taking on some of nation’s best
The Aggie softball team had a tough spring break.
On March 4-6 the team went winless in the University of Arizona Tournament in Tucson, Ariz., losing to Minnesota 2-1, Arizona 11-3 in six innings, UC Riverside 4-1, Idaho State 10-2 in five innings and Portland State 5-2 in extra innings.
On March 8 and 9, the Aggies visited Bakersfield, Calif., to play a pair of doubleheaders with Cal State Bakersfield.
In the first game, USU got out to a quick start thanks to first inning home runs by seniors Shasta Tyteca and Kelly Kaneshiro to go up 2-0. In the next inning, junior second baseman Lindsey Marquez joined the home run party on the first at-bat of the inning, with the Aggies eventually extending their lead to 6-1 by the end of the second inning.
Sophomore pitcher Mandy Harmon was credited with the 9-6 win, striking out seven batters over six innings. Marquez went 3-for-4 with one home run, one RBI and two runs. Freshman outfielder Kassandra Uchida chipped in with two hits, one run, and two RBIs.
The second leg of the doubleheader was a deadlock until the Roadrunners strung together a couple of doubles by sophomore center fielder Laura King and freshman shortstop Myshayla Fryer to go up 2-0. Utah State tied it up in the seventh to force extra innings.
Junior first baseman Ashley Ventura homered down the left field line to score the go ahead run, putting USU on top, 3-2. Aggie joy ended when junior pitcher Dani Chaplin gave up back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the eighth to lose 4-3.
Utah State split the series with Cal State Bakersfield, each team winning two games apiece.
USU head coach Carissa Millsap-Kalaba said her team is really close and just needs to string hits together.
“We’re hitting, just not hitting consecutively or timely,” Millsap-Kalaba said. “We’re playing these games well; we’re losing by one run in the eighth inning, or something happens and we’ll give up one run in the bottom of the seventh.”
Heading south to Long Beach to compete in the Long beach State Tournament, the Aggies again went winless, but this time never by a margin of more than three runs. They lost to Cal State Fullerton 2-1 in extra innings, St. Mary’s 1-0, and dropped both games of a doubleheader to Sacramento State, losing 4-1 and 1-0
The Aggies had a chance to beat Long Beach State Sunday. Marquez flied out in the top of the sixth with two outs, leaving two runners on base. In the bottom of the same inning, 49er freshman pitcher Erin Jones-Wesley hit a double scoring senior first baseman Christina Schallig from second to put Long Beach State up 1-0. The final score was 2-0.
“They want to win,” Millsap-Kalaba said. “They’re very close to where they need to be. They just gotta get through the tape, once they do that, they’ll figure it out. We’ve got speed, power and contact.”
Whenever a team’s non-conference schedule includes some of the best teams in the country, it is usually to help that team get better, and Utah State has a very tough non-conference schedule.
Teams like No. 4 Arizona and No. 33 Long Beach State, as well as the previously top-ranked UCLA Bruins and now-No. 12 Stanford were scheduled just weeks before.
The Aggies beat North Dakota State; held St. Mary’s to just one run and lost to San Diego State by only two, three teams that competed in the NCAA championship tournament during the 2010 season.
The Aggies have played in four extra-inning games which could have easily gone the other way. 16 of Utah State’s 24 games this season have been decided by three runs or less.
“To be able to be at that level ahead of time and used to that pace is a benefit to us in our conference,” Millsap-Kalaba said. “That’s gonna give us an upper hand against Fresno State, Nevada and Hawaii.”
Hawaii is currently ranked No. 17 in the nation with the 11th-highest RPI, while Fresno State has been ranked as high as 23 this season. Millsap-Kalaba said both teams competed at the national level last year.
“We’re playing some of the best teams in the nation,” Millsap-Kalaba said. “We’re gonna take some losses but in the process we’re really going to learn and grow for the WAC conference, which is ultimately our goal, to be competitive and do well there.”
The Aggies will next travel northwest to take on Oregon State and Oregon of the Pac-10 in a pair of weekend double-headers on March 19 and 20.
“It’s all there,” Millsap-Kalaba said. “We just have to piece it together in the right way, which is what this preseason before conference is all about.”
– tavin.stucki@aggiemail.usu.edu