PITTSBURGH—Although still encouraged about his young team's play, Franciscan University softball coach Terry Leighty said that the problems the Lady Barons are encountering on the year stem from defense. Committing eight errors over the two games, the Lady Barons dropped both contests to the La Roche College Lady Redhawks 9-0 and 9-1.
"I'm still encouraged; they were the best two games we've played in a while," Leighty said. "The problem is, we had too many errors in each game. Our pitchers pitched their hearts out; they just didn't get any support from our fielders."
Lara Plumlee pitched in both games for Franciscan, pitching a complete game in game two, giving up ten hits in four innings. While she surrendered nine runs, only four were earned as she was given the loss. She also pitched 1/3 of an inning in game one, relieving Brianna Antrim who went 3 2/3 innings while giving up seven hits and allowing nine runs (seven earned) and walking nine as she was tagged with the loss.
"We only had seven hits in the two games against some pretty good [La Roche] pitching," added Leighty. "Even though there were some girls that had some wonderful, encouraging at-bats, I am discouraged that we're not getting runs. We didn't put the ball in play, we struck out quite a bit, but the team overall is so much further along than we were at the beginning of the season."
Throughout the two games, three main offensive contributors paced the Lady Barons. Plumlee and Erin Gulick both went 2-4 on the afternoon, and Antrim went 2-5. The last lone hit came off the bat of Rebecca Peters in game one.
"Our main problem is we're not catching the ball [on defense.] Other teams come out and do so many different things; they bunt, they slap, and they put you in different situations. If we catch the ball, we lose 3-0 instead of 9-0," noted Leighty. Still, the one thing that remains at the center of the Lady Baron squad is heart. "They've never given up. They were up on the screen [of the dugout] screaming for each other. This team does not quit on one another. They all realize the problems we have, but it's encouraging because they've never given up," he added.
The Lady Barons fall to 0-12 in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference and 1-21 overall. They look to notch their first conference win in a home doubleheader on Saturday against Hilbert College. Hilbert is also winless in the AMCC and have acquired just one non-conference win on the year. Game one is slated to begin at 1 p.m.
