Coming off an MWC Championship 2002 season, U softball coach Mona Stevens did not expect her team to perform as poorly as it did this season.
“I was very disappointed because talent-wise, we were OK, but the season was frustrating and hard and we didn’t have our hearts in it at all,” she said.
The Utes could not even muster up a win in the conference championships, as they got blanked 5-0 by New Mexico in the first round and were sent packing against BYU, 7-4.
Throughout the season, the Utes were inconsistent, especially at the dish. The inability to come through with runners in scoring position crippled the Utes’ chances of winning many games.
But such inconsistency may not have entirely been the Utes fault; rather, external factors played a major role in the Utes’ problems this season as well.
“We had a lot of disruptions and were never able to weather the weather,” Stevens said. “We lost almost all of our home games because of the weather, which makes it tough to get into a flow.”
Thirteen games were canceled due to weather conditions, including five home ballgames, four of which were within the conference.
The loss of conference games really hurt the Utes because they could not be made up, and teams like San Diego State would only have to face the Utes on their home field.
Having to consistently play conference matches on the road wore the team down, but that alone did not damage the Utes’ chances.
Along with their rigorous road schedule, losing caused quite a bit of conflict in the locker room.
“Any time you have a team sport, the thing that will determine if you are successful is how the group plays together,” Stevens said. “We had some issues with the team and they got a little bit difficult.”
Losing got to the Utes and there was no way they could repeat their championship run with the mental state they were in.
“The issues we had were tough with team chemistry, but issues will always rise when you lose and all the little things become big things,” Stevens said. “No amount of talent will combat that.”
Although it was a poor season, Stevens can look forward to next year, considering she had a relatively young group this season.
“I am really excited about next year because we have an experienced infield coming back, some solid hitters and we have two new pitchers along with Heather [Bowlin] and Brianna [Gourdin].”
Besides Niki Hayhurst’s exodus, everyone else in the infield is coming back next season.
Outfielder Lynsey Wall, who made it to the all-MWC team in her freshman year this season, will play catcher next season.
Due in part to lack of depth, Wall will still play outfield at some points next year, but the only other returning player in the outfield is Sarah Lyman.
“We need to get one or two more players in the outfield,” Stevens said.
Utah will look to replace Jen Pursell with Gourdin in the rotation, but the team also has a couple more pitchers coming in.
“Samantha Schroeder and Melissa Oaks are coming in from California and they did very well in leagues over there,” Stevens said.