The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

Write for Us
Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor, send us an op-ed pitch or check out our open positions for the chance to be published by the Daily Utah Chronicle.
@TheChrony
Print Issues
Write for Us
Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor, send us an op-ed pitch or check out our open positions for the chance to be published by the Daily Utah Chronicle.
@TheChrony
Print Issues

Softball: Utah program making strides after first road series win

Softball: Utah program making strides after first road series win

softball.jpg

The Utah softball team made some significant strides during their series against Stanford last weekend, getting its first road series win since joining the Pac-12.

As is the case with nearly anything in life, there is a bit of an adjustment period that takes place when something changes, especially at the college level. When Utah switched conferences from the Mountain West to the Pac-12, it was a big deal for nearly every aspect of the school. It affected how the U was viewed and the schools it would be grouped with, including schools like Cal and Stanford.

RELATED: UTES CLAIM FIRST PAC-12 ROAD SERIES WIN AT STANFORD

For athletics teams specifically, this change brought a lot of different opponents Utah would be facing off against nearly every year. The Pac-12 is an extremely competitive conference, and arguably the best all-around athletic conference in the nation.

Softball is just one of the sports that has been very competitive within the Conference of Champions. Utah has needed a few seasons to adjust, and understandably so, but it seems like the Utes are ready to shed the newcomer title and become a legitimate threat.

They took a critical step in that direction last weekend.

Entering the series against Stanford, Utah had yet to win a conference series on the road. Prior to the start of the season, Utah coach Amy Hogue noted this was an improvement the program needed to make.

“The fact that we have only won one conference game on the road is something I think about a lot,” Hogue said at the beginning of the season.

Well it’s something she won’t have to think about much anymore. Her Utes went out and not only matched their previous conference wins, but got another one against the Cardinal to clinch the series.

“I feel like it’s been a big team effort,” senior Marissa Mendenhall said.

It wasn’t easy, though the Utes sure made it look like it by winning the first and third games of the weekend slate.

“It’s hard to win games on the road,” Hogue said. “We hadn’t won a series on the road before so this was a pretty big deal to come away with the series win.”

Utah won’t spend too much time celebrating the program’s accomplishment, as the Utes have loftier goals for the season. They won’t have much time to think about it either, as they have a doubleheader in the middle of this week.

Utah plays Southern Utah in two games on Tuesday at the Utah Softball Stadium. These games will provide a great opportunity for a little bit of in-state rivalry. The Utes aren’t taking this doubleheader lightly though, as the Thunderbirds are hungry for a chance to take down a much larger school.

“It’s a huge game for them so we’ve got to recover fast and come ready to play,” Hogue said. “We can’t just roll in and expect to win games. That’s not how it works in college softball.”

Hogue and the rest of the team are excited to have a slower travel schedule this week and to enjoy some time playing on their home field in front of a Utah crowd.

The first game is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. with the second following at 6 p.m. MT.

[email protected]

@brock_jensen02

Leave a Comment

Comments (0)

The Daily Utah Chronicle welcomes comments from our community. However, the Daily Utah Chronicle reserves the right to accept or deny user comments. A comment may be denied or removed if any of its content meets one or more of the following criteria: obscenity, profanity, racism, sexism, or hateful content; threats or encouragement of violent or illegal behavior; excessively long, off-topic or repetitive content; the use of threatening language or personal attacks against Chronicle members; posts violating copyright or trademark law; and advertisement or promotion of products, services, entities or individuals. Users who habitually post comments that must be removed may be blocked from commenting. In the case of duplicate or near-identical comments by the same user, only the first submission will be accepted. This includes comments posted across multiple articles. You can read more about our comment policy at https://dailyutahchronicle.com/comment-faqs/.
All The Daily Utah Chronicle Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *