The Utah women’s softball team needs a conference win.
With UNLV and San Diego State coming to town, the Utes know their postseason hopes could live or die this weekend.
That is, if Mother Nature allows it. The game is still in question, if snow flurries, which are expected for Thursday afternoon, hold true.
“It’s pretty important that we win these games so we have a chance at the postseason,” said senior shortstop Sharee Fonoti. “We’ve got to go all out and bring our game to get some wins.”
Although the Utes know that getting wins this weekend is critical, that hasn’t been what they’ve been talking about in practice this week.
“I didn’t talk to my team about winning,” said head coach Amy Hogue. “I didn’t even talk to my team about hitting for average. All we talked about is doing the little things better.”
For the Utes, doing the little things better entails going back to the basics and focusing on the fundamentals8212;things like footwork, coverage and hitting.
“We pretty much ran a clinic today. We did bunt coverage and footwork with no glove on,” Hogue said after practice Monday. “We went back to square one to really just get the team back to doing the little things well, and we ran one of the best practices we’ve had all year. Today, we did all defense and tomorrow we’ll do the same thing with hitting.”
Utah is returning to the fundamentals after putting too much focus on coming out and showing the Mountain West Conference what it is made of. Looking at the big picture is what caused the Utes to lose sight of the little things that really matter, Hogue said.
“We tried to look too big and are getting beat on some of the little things, like throwing strikes and getting outs when they give us outs on sacrifice bunts, and catching and throwing,” Hogue said. “The little things in the game are starting to beat us and we’re not willing to let that happen anymore.”
In addition to doing all the little things necessary to get a win, the Utes are putting their focus on the first few innings of the game and coming out strong.
Utah is 3-18 on the season when giving up the first run to its opponent and the Utes know they have to put up strong performances in the first couple of innings if they want to win this weekend.
“We are letting the first inning get away from us and then we’re chasing somebody again. Our win-loss record when we’re losing after the first isn’t great,” Hogue said. “We’re going to do the little things well in the first inning and go from there.”
Despite getting clobbered by BYU last weekend, the Utes haven’t lost their confidence, but know that it is going to take a total team effort to get wins this weekend.
“It’s going to take all of us coming together, pitching and defense and hitting,” Fonoti said. “We’ve got nothing to lose8212;we just have to come out strong and play our game.”
Utah begins today with a matchup against UNLV at 4 p.m., and the game will be televised on CBS College Sports.
The Utes will then face San Diego State in games both Friday and Saturday. Friday’s game will begin at 3 p.m. and will be broadcast on the Mtn. and Saturday’s game will start at 1 p.m.
All three games will be played on Ute Field, weather permitting.
Richard PaysonAfter suffering a series of losses in conference play the Ute softball team needs a win to in order to have a chance to reach the postseason.