After dropping its first two conference games of the season, the Massachusetts softball team will head to George Washington this Saturday for a doubleheader.
The Minutewomen (3-14, 0-2 Atlantic-10) have had a week to prepare after Tuesday’s home opener versus Boston College was cancelled due to field conditions. They will be facing a Colonials (11-18-1, 0-2 A-10) team that has lost three out of their last four, and are also in search of their first conference victory.
Despite losing the last five games, UMass coach Kristi Stefanoni said her team rarely discusses their record and statistics, but rather focuses on how they can advance moving forward.
“We have this mentality with the team where we use the term ‘push it and move on’ which I think has really kept us focused on the future,” she said. “We spend maybe a day looking at video and going over things we need to get better at as the week progresses in preparation for a weekend conference series, and we move on.”
Stefanoni and her team has been hindered by bad weather conditions so far, which has affected their practice and game schedule.
“It’s difficult because the things we need to work on like situations on offense and defense, we can’t really do inside,” Stefanoni said. “We don’t have the type of indoor facility where we can actually make a field and hit fly balls, so we try and get out as much as we can to work on things, but it’s tough when we have to work with 30 mile-per-hour winds.”
During its current five game skid, UMass has been outscored 30-17, including a 10-4 loss on March 16 against Rutgers. The Minutewomen will look to their offensive trio of Quianna Diaz-Patterson, Taylor Carbone and Lindsey Webster to produce some runs offensively. Carbone is tied with Webster for most home runs on the team with three, while Diaz-Patterson leads the team with a batting average of .400 and 20 hits.
Other than working on situational plays, Stefanoni would like to see her team play together as a unit and connect with each other on the field.
“We just need to work on playing more together and communication,” she said. “The rest of it is really just a few balls dropping here and there in games that will turn it around.”
UMass will need to shut down the George Washington freshmen duo of Megan Linn and Bradleigh Breland, who are hitting .340 and .325, respectively.
In order for the Minutewomen to win this weekend, Stefanoni believes that it is all about her team staying in the moment and just enjoying themselves when they are playing.
“Honestly, relaxing and have fun is what it is for us,” she said. “Right now I think the team is caught up in the result of what we’ve been doing instead of the process. The result has been a loss unfortunately, and the process throughout the game isn’t what we feel could have gone either way. It’s as simple as relaxing and going out there and enjoying the moment and just playing the game.”
The first game of the doubleheader is set to begin at noon, with the second one scheduled for 2 p.m.
Jason Kates can be reached at [email protected].
