Missed opportunities cost softball series against UC Santa Barbara

By Mark Nessia
Staff Writer

Inconsistency and missed opportunities cost the CSUB softball team the series against visiting UC Santa Barbara. The Roadrunners (7-8) lost the series, 2-1, including a 6-0, two-hitter, loss in the final contest.
The Roadrunners had an opportunity to score runs in the final game, despite not recording a hit through three innings, when a fielder's choice, walk and an error loaded the bases for Danielle Lyman with two outs in the inning. Lyman entered the weekend batting .548, with a team-leading three home runs, but flew out to deep left to end the threat.
"That was just a poor performance on our part," said CSUB head coach Kathy Welter. "You have to give some credit to their pitcher. She pitched well, and almost had a no-hitter against us until the very end. Part of it was that, but a lot of our weaknesses all showed up at the same time against them."
UC Santa Barbara (11-7) accumulated 11 hits in third game, while the Roadrunners didn't get their first hit until the bottom of the seventh inning. The Roadrunners also committed three errors in the game, which led to two unearned runs.
The Roadrunners nearly won the first game against UC Santa Barbara when Lyman, once again, came up to bat with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning, down by one. Lyman struck out looking for the third, and final, out of the game resulting in a 4-3 loss.
The Roadrunners were able to capitalize in the second game against UC Santa Barbara when, down 6-3 in the bottom of the seventh inning, freshman Justeen Maeva hit a three-run home run to send the game into extra innings.
Following international tie-breaker rules in extra innings, in which a runner is placed on second base to start each inning, Maeva came through once again, in the bottom of the ninth, with a double to center field to drive the winning run home for the 7-6 win.
It was the first time the Roadrunners have won against UC Santa Barbara since beating them, 2-1, on Feb. 25, 1992.
"They beat us both games in a doubleheader last year, so it was good to get a win against them," said Welter. "I thought the first game that we lost, we had a good comeback going. That game could have gone either way."
Welter implemented a few changes to the team's defensive lineups, as well as the designated player, in the series against UC Santa Barbara. The changes led to players playing different defensive positions, as well as pitcher Brittany Johnson batting.
"I think we have a lot of players who can play lots of positions," said Welter. "There are several players on the team that are better offensively than defensively, and others who are better defensively than offensively, and so to try and balance it out is kind of a guessing game. You can't really know until you know how the pitchers are going to be throwing, and how the other pitcher is going to be throwing so it's just kind of a guess. But I thought we needed to try something else, just to look at some other options."
Johnson got her first collegiate hit over the weekend, going 1-for-4 over the three-game series, but lost the two games she started.
"Our pitchers have been struggling," said Welter. "I think Brittany (Johnson) the first day, after giving up some runs, settled down. That was the fewest runs that we've held them to - four runs in that game. After that, we just gave up too many runs, gave up a lot of walks and the defense wasn't as sharp as it should be."
Welter said defense and pitching usually go together, and that they feed off each other. When one is strong, it takes pressure off the other, but when both are struggling, it puts pressure on the other part of the equation.
"We're struggling in both departments right now," said Welter.
The Roadrunners will travel to San Jose State to play a four-game series on March 6 and 7. In preparation for the contest, Welter said that the team needs to work on staying mentally strong and not getting down when an opposing team scores runs. But Welter's main focus is generating more consistent play from her team so they don't have a good day followed by a bad day.
"It's better to have moderate days all the way through," said Welter. "At least have a chance to be in every game. A lot of things we just have to keep working on, and some things just take time. Some of the weaknesses are there because somebody is young and just needs experience. We just have to keep going at it, but the key thing is to stay mentally tough, so we don't get down and frustrated and not pulling together the win."