The Utah women’s softball team improved to 7-3 on the season as it went 4-1 at the Louisville Slugger Classic during the weekend in Las Vegas.
The Utes dropped their first game of the tournament to No. 18 Nevada, but from there on caught fire and won their next four games.
“We had a great weekend,” said head coach Amy Hogue. “We found ways to win ball games, games that were close.”
Utah started the weekend off shaky against the Wolfpack as it was unable to generate any offense, earning only two hits in 17 at bats.
The defense and pitching also struggled in the loss as the Utes committed three errors in the field, allowing 13 runs on only eight hits.
“We just didn’t get anything rolling,” Hogue said of the 13-0 loss. “We made some mistakes defensively and struggled on the mound. Really nothing came together for us.”
The game was eerily similar to Utah’s loss last weekend to then-No. 15 Washington. In both games against ranked opponents, Utah has struggled both offensively and defensively.
“We’re going to face top 20 teams every weekend and we’re eventually going to make those adjustments and knock someone off,” Hogue said. “We haven’t been able to do it yet, but we will.”
Although mistakes and offensive struggles plagued the Utes in their first game, the problems didn’t last for long.
In the next four games, Utah committed only two errors in the field and earned 18 runs with 19 hits as the team earned wins against Portland State, Oregon State, Cal State Fullerton and UC Davis.
None of the four games were easy wins for Utah.
A three-run seventh inning earned the Utes a victory over UC Davis, and Lindsey Palmer struck out a batter with the bases loaded to hold on to the lead in the Cal-State Fullerton game.
“We showed the guts that we have,” Hogue said. “We had to come from behind in the seventh inning and we had to hold a close lead in a couple of games.”
Although Utah’s pitching improved from last week and the defense stayed steady, it was the bats that were the stars of the show over the weekend.
The Utes drove in 18 runs on 19 hits8212;including five home runs from four different Utah players.
Whitney Holm earned her fourth and fifth home runs of the season and leads the Utes in long balls, while Kara Foster got her fourth of the season and is in second place all-time with 39 home runs. Teammates Angie Boardman and Sharee Fonoti got in on the action as well, both blasting their first home runs of the season.
“Whitney and Kara have been and will continue to be two of our strongest hitters but other kids stepped up and got big hits when we needed them,” Hogue said. “That’s the fun thing about this game. It’s not always going to be your star player that steps up.”
The Utes will continue to keep their bats hot as they put their four-game winning streak to the test starting Friday at the Wildcat Invitational in Arizona.