USU softball struggling midway through season
Despite having played half of their regular season schedule, the Utah State softball team is scheduled to play its first home game Friday as part of a three-game home series against Boise State.
The Aggies have struggled to live up to the success they had last year. The 2017 campaign recorded the most wins since 1996 (33) and the best win percentage since 1993 (.647). This year, the team is 9-11 and has yet to find its rhythm.
Youth has played a big factor in some of the struggles. Utah State returned six starters but lost several key players and have been shuffling through lineups trying to find a consistent group of hitters and dependable fielders. Three freshmen have started at least 10 games and the eight freshmen on the team have accounted for 46 combined starts.
“The game’s a whole lot faster at this level,” fifth-year had coach Steve Johnson said. “There’s a huge learning curve, and there’s a lot to think about and a lot to take into account on the field and we just haven’t done it consistently yet. Sometimes we look great, sometimes we don’t. We’ve just got to keep battling through it until we find something that’s going to work.”
Two players the Aggies will miss are Victoria Saucedo and Paxton Provost, USU’s two best two-way players last year.
Saucedo a California native, is arguably the best hitter in Utah State softball history. In her four-year career, Saucedo ranks first all-time in total bases (339) and runs (113); second in home runs (33), RBIs (124) and slugging percentage (.576); third in hits (204) and batting average (.346); and fourth in doubles (36).
Provost was a deadly hitter in her own right. She ended her career ranked fourth in home runs (21), fifth in RBIs (109) and sixth in slugging percentage (.502).
Without these hitters, Utah State has struggled to get on base. As a team, they have batted .292 (lower than last year’s .309) and are averaging exactly five runs per game (just under last year’s mark of 5.2).
The Aggies’ offense merely dipped without Saucedo and Provost, but the defense has tanked without the duo and fellow departed shortstop Sarina Jaramillo.
Provost, Jaramillo and Saucedo formed the core of a defense that posted a fielding percentage of .964 with 1.02 errors per game. This year, the Aggies have a .944 fielding percentage and their errors have risen dramatically to 1.75. They’ve also allowed opponents to steal bases at a much higher rate (.857 this year compared to .678)
However, the potential for USU is there, as senior catcher Brina Buttacavoli believes.
“This year’s team has a ton of talent, Buttavacoli said. “Some of these freshmen can pull out crazy things that, I’m a senior, and still trying to do.”
One of the strengths of the current iteration of Aggies is speed, part of that speed includes a propensity for stealing bases. And this USU squad has one of the best collection of base-stealers in program history.
“We’ve got more speed this year than we did last year,” head coach Steve Johnson said. “That’s going to be key for us all year. We don’t have yet a consistent lineup of putting a string of base hits together so out speed allows us to steal some bases, do some things … So we’re going to use our base-stealers and our speed to put the ball in play and try and create as much chaos on the base path as we can.”
Senior Jazmin Clarke and junior Mia Maher are first and second all-time in career stolen bases for USU. Clarke has 71 stolen bases, 33 more than her teammate Maher. Maher started the year tied for fourth all-time but has added five more stolen bases this year to lead into second.
To that duo of base-stealing specialists already with the team, Utah State added Arizona native Leah Molina. The freshman is second on the team with 12 stolen bases already this year. One more, and the freshman will be tied for ninth-most in a single season in program history. Clarke leads the team with 14 —which is tied for eight-most in a single season — and is about on pace to match or break her own single-season record of 31 bases stolen.
The bullpen for the Aggies has also done well despite the struggles of the rest of the defense. The pitching crew, consisting of Kellie White, Delaney Hull and Jordyn McCracken is averaging more strikeouts and fewer walks and home runs than the 2017 bullpen. However, the ERA has risen from 3.09 from last year to 3.46 this year.
Brina, who has been behind the plate with each of those pitchers on the mound described the trio as “freaking phenomenal.”
“This bullpen, in my mind, is the best bullpen in conference,” Buttacavoli said. “You have Kellie White, who came in as a freshman last year, she’s looking to lead the bullpen again and you have Delaney who, she’s looking to learn and she follows and you tell her to jump and she says ‘how high’ and she’ll do it. And Jordyn McCracken is by far the hardest working player I’ve ever played with.”
– @thejwalk67