Virginia softball will head out to Las Vegas this weekend to play in the Louisville Slugger Desert Classic. The Cavaliers will play six games in four days, including games against Brigham Young and Louisville, which may be among the Cavaliers’ toughest challenges this weekend. Virginia will also battle Southern Utah, South Dakota State, Saint Louis and Cal-Fullerton.
This season already looks to be off to a more promising start than those in the past, as the Cavaliers took three of four games on their way to winning the season-opening Pirate Invitational last weekend. In particular, Virginia performed well from both the offensive and defensive sides against Middle Tennessee State and East Carolina. In the four game set, the Cavaliers put 26 runs on the board off 28 hits. The pitchers also held Virginia’s opposition to under four runs per game.
After their strong showing in the first week, the Cavaliers are looking forward to the rest of the season and hope to use a boost in confidence to their advantage this weekend.
“Obviously we had a good weekend,” senior second baseman Casey Steffan said. “We had good performances from our pitchers, and our offense also played well. Overall, right now we are pretty strong.”
Louisville appears to be the strongest of this weekend’s opponents; the Cardinals come in off a tournament victory of their own, winning all five games at the Florida International Tournament. Brigham Young also will be a test; the Cougars won four of six contests at the BYU/UVU Red Desert Classic last weekend, falling only to No. 15 Washington and No. 12 Tennessee. Both schools are not ranked but have received votes in the national poll.
Both Southern Utah and South Dakota State, meanwhile, enter the Louisville Slugger Desert Classic with just one win each. Cal-Fullerton, on the other hand, has played just one game thus far, after its three other games last weekend were cancelled because of inclement weather. In their sole softball contest, though, the Titans hit four home runs en route to a convincing 9-2 win in a rain-shortened, five-inning game against Indiana.
How the Cavaliers handle the quick turnaround time between games this week will be a good indication of how things will play out for the rest of the team’s season. In this regard, Virginia coach Eileen Schmidt said she has been working with her players to keep them focused and ready to play on short rest.
“With only one day of practice, there is not a lot of time to make many significant changes to our team,” Schmidt said. “This week it will be more about mental preparation, as opposed to physically, and remaining focused on what we need to do.”
Team members also said they have come a long way since last season, noting that the addition of several new players has helped the team improve both offensively and defensively. Junior pitcher Nicole Koren said she is sure that this year’s team is different from those of years past.
“Our skill level has really improved,” Koren said. “Our mental game has also gotten better, and it is really showing on the field. Pitching has been very solid for us so far this year, and our freshmen will help us out.”
To continue playing at their current level, however, the Cavaliers may need to continue working to improve in certain areas, Schmidt said.
“As far as pitching is concerned we need to do a better job of staying ahead of hitters and making sure we are finishing off innings,” Schmidt said. “On offense, it is important that we make our adjustments quicker and remain aggressive.”
While having a big inning every now and then can be uplifting and beneficial, being consistent about putting runs on the board is more essential. In the championship game Sunday against East Carolina at the Pirate Invitational, Virginia put up all 12 of its runs in the final two innings.
“We really need to get better at our short game, and being able to score more consistently — not just relying on the big innings to carry us through,” Steffan said. “We want to have a fence post, scoring a run each inning.”
With all the excitement surrounding Virginia’s positive start to the season, Schmidt also had some additional words of advice for her team that she hopes will help it show that last weekend’s success was not an aberration.
“The most important thing we need to do is keep everything simple,” she said.
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