Weber State University’s softball team traveled to New Mexico and competed in the Troy Cox Classic Tournament. WSU came off the weekend with a 1-4 record and a 3-7 record overall.
WSU lost to New Mexico State University 9-13 and beat Stephen F. Austin State University 13-5 on the first day. After that, the Wildcats lost to No. 22-ranked University of Nebraska 4-12, Colorado State University 14-15 in extra innings, and SFASU 4-6.
“We were in every single game, which was very exciting,” said Erika Dixon, team captain. “It was a fun weekend and it was nice to see how much we have grown since the fall. We are just learning from every game.”
The Wildcats had a great weekend offensively and scored a total of 44 runs on the weekend and had a total of 54 hits. At the plate, infielder Symbree Minniear went 15-22, and over the weekend she came out with a .667 batting average.
“I feel like this weekend I was finally able to get comfortable in the box,” Minniear said. “I was able to clear my head and just focus on ‘see ball, hit ball’.”
Infielder Lyndsey Minnich had four home runs this weekend, one of which was a grand slam, and two in the SportCo Kickoff Classic. Minnich leads the team in home runs, with six on the season so far.
Against NMSU, WSU had four home runs, two by Minniear and Brooke Silva. Freshmen Cydnee Clarke and Janel Cunningham each stepped up and hit one out.
“Our freshmen really came and stepped up for us,” Minnich said. “Everyone was really confident on the field and it helped us to compete.”
Sarah Clark pitched well this weekend, earning her career high of 11 strikeouts against SFASU. She had a total of 18 on the weekend. Freshman Morgan Allaband contributed nine strikeouts on the weekend.
“We are happy with things so far,” Dixon said. “We have high expectations this year and we don’t want to lower our expectations on anyone, even if the teams are ranked above us. We just need to get more wins.”
The team attributes the losses to the fact that the defense and offense don’t coordinate.
“When we are hitting, our defense is not as strong,” Dixon said. “When our defense is strong, our hitting goes away. As soon as we can put all that together, I really think we will be unstoppable. It will be really exciting when we have it all flow together.”
The team will be working on getting the offense and defense to flow and keeping the leads it obtains.
“We need to get ahead and stay ahead,” Minnich said. “Our bats have kept us in every game. We need to get our defense more consistent. Our defense has one bad inning that brings us down. We just need to get rid of that one bad inning.”
WSU will next travel down to Southern Utah University for an in-state match-off Feb. 25-26. After that, the Wildcats will go to the Colorado State Spring Tournament in Colorado.
“I feel like SUU will want some revenge on us after we swept them last year,” Minniear said. “It will be some good in-state competition. They have some good bats, but we will be able to compete with them and hopefully come back with some wins.”
