A new era of Utah softball began Tuesday night, but the result was all too much the same.
In the Utes’ first contest at their new stadium, they were outplayed in every aspect of the game. But the most glaring issue was once again the team’s lack of offense. Utah had seven hits but was only able to score once as it lost to Utah Valley University 4-1.
“UVU wanted to beat us more than we wanted to beat them and we played tentative and they played aggressive,” said Utah head coach Amy Hogue. “They came out to beat us [and] we came out to not lose on our home opener. It’s a terrible way to approach the game.”
Outfielder Kate Dickman drove in the Utah’s (13-14-1) only run with a triple in the sixth inning. She believes the team’s offensive woes can be attributed to a lack of confidence.
“We need to walk up there with confidence and just know that we’re going to hit and that we can do it,” Dickman said. “Everyone just needs to believe in themselves.”
Before the game, Hogue said she thought her team needed to score right away to win. She felt the same afterward.
“We won’t win [games] if we can’t find a way to score early and often, and we’re continuing to do the same things wrong,” Hogue said. “Our team isn’t making that adjustment on the field. In practice they do it well so it is something that needs to switch in their heads. They have to have the same confidence in their abilities in the games as they do in practice.”
In addition to the struggles on offense, the Utes’ defense wasn’t great on Tuesday either. All four of the Wolverines’ (17-11) runs came in two innings — the third and the sixth. Two throwing errors in the sixth resulted in those scores. Mariah Ramirez pitched 5.1 innings for Utah and allowed seven hits and two earned runs.
“I don’t feel we were doing everything that we could have, but you know we were giving 110 percent and we just need to make adjustments to hit the ball,” Ramirez said.
While Hogue was upset her team didn’t show the fans their talent in the home debut, she was more disappointed the team didn’t meet its own expectations. She hopes this changes in three games against Arizona this weekend.
“No one today saw how good we are,” Hogue said. “We hope that this weekend we can kind of show that to not just the people that come but to ourselves. We haven’t seen it for a while.”