USU softball ends weekend with loss
“Utah State is no joke,” said Ysidro Jimenez, head coach for Colorado Northwest Community College.
That just so happened to be true as CNCC walked away with a 14-6 loss on their shoulders earlier on Saturday.
Unfortunately, the Aggie’s second game of the day — against Idaho State — wasn’t as victorious as the first. With a 4-0 loss, USU left the field with more experience and a more clear vision of what they need to work on.
Junior transfer Amanda Sheets said that facing bigger teams is going to be harder for them.
“We have to get that attitude of just being more aggressive and playing how we would normally do against any other team,” Sheets said.
Utah State struggled with getting it’s glove to the ball on Saturday, giving up 12 Idaho State hits.
“It’s a lot of mental game in softball because most of it is failure,” Sheets said. “So it’s hard. You just have to stop competing at one point and say, ‘Hey, let’s get the out now.’ It’s hard to sit there and watch runs go by and not do anything about it. You just gotta get your mental toughness up and know you’re gonna get the next out.”
Junior Alleyah Armendariz, the starting pitcher for Utah State on Saturday, said that they have a great pitching staff this year.
“It’s not necessarily about throwing strikes anymore,” Armendariz said. “It’s about striking people out.”
As a team, Armendariz said that they’re just growing right now.
Offensively, the Aggies struggled through the Idaho State game. Every player on the team has altered their swing, and they are just waiting for the changes to sink in.
“I feel like once we all buy in and it clicks, it’ll all click at one time. When season comes, it’s all gonna come together. Once it comes together we’ll be fine,” Armendariz said.
So far in preseason, softball has played a variety of teams. Head coach Steve Johnson looks at the preseason as a chance for improvement.
“We have played five games so far, and it’s teams that we’re maybe better than,” Johnson said. “We’ve played really well, and we played like we were better than them. Then teams that seems like the other two that with Washington and Idaho State we’ve played on a different level.”
Johnson said that playing these teams early on is good for them so that they can take the issues from game time and address them during practices.
Aggie softball takes on the College of Southern Idaho on Saturday as their preseason comes to an end.
“A lot of good things are happening,” Johnson said. “We still have a long way to go to get ready for the spring.”
— kenna.cook@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @kennaacook