Mother Nature seems to be against the Utah women’s softball team, as bad weather has once again caused problems for the Utes’ schedule.
Three games this weekend, including the BYU matchup, were either cancelled or postponed because of rainy weather.
Utah’s third and final game against the Cougars, which was originally scheduled for Saturday, was postponed because of rain. The game will be rescheduled, but the date and time has yet to be determined as both teams have full schedules wrapping up Mountain West Conference play in the next few weeks.
Utah’s doubleheader against Utah Valley University, originally scheduled for Sunday, and a game that was already rescheduled from earlier in the season because of snow were cancelled because of rain. The Utes will not be rescheduling those games.
The cancellations mean the Utes will jump back into MWC play later this week after not having taken the field in more than a week, as they go on the road to take on San Diego State and UNLV.
“I really don’t think it’s a concern,” said assistant coach Adrian Gregory. “We’ll practice all week before we hit the road Thursday and be prepared. It’s not that big of an issue. Yes, we missed the chance to play some games, but it doesn’t make me worried that we are gong to play worse this weekend.”
With the end of the regular season drawing near, the Utes, who are in last place in the MWC with a 1-6 record, will have to win the majority of their remaining games to have a chance at the postseason.
“We’re talking more simple, about respecting the game and playing it because we love it,” Gregory said. “We’re choosing smaller goals each day, not that we are copping out of big goals, but our focus is just doing every single little thing right.”
First up for the Utes will be a Thursday game against San Diego State at 6 p.m. Utah will then travel to Las Vegas where it will play the Rebels in a two-game series starting at 6 p.m. Friday and wrap up at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Utah will go into the road trip coming off its best hitting day of the season against Southern Utah University. In Wednesday’s doubleheader, the Utes earned 26 hits, including eight home runs.
Although the Utes hope to carry over the hitting success from last week, not playing in more than a week could work against the struggling Utah squad.
The last time the Utes had game cancellations and then went on the road for MWC games, they returned home with back-to-back losses to New Mexico and Colorado State.
“I don’t believe we played poorly because we missed games the week before, I believe we played poorly because we weren’t mentally prepared,” Gregory said. “Yeah we lost games this weekend, but our mentality is different now, so we should play better.”
After this week’s road trip, Utah will return home to wrap up the regular season with four games against Colorado State and New Mexico.
tyler cobbThe Utah softball team was forced to postpone three games this weekend because of weather. The game against BYU will be rescheduled but the day has not been decided yet. The two games against UVU will not be rescheduled.