The softball team’s inexperience showed this weekend.
Buffalo scored 19 runs while striking out 20 times. The pitching staff allowed a season-high 15 runs in Sunday’s finale against Ohio State. The team was also shut out twice in the weekend. Last year, it took the team until March 14 to get shut out twice.
The Bulls (3-7) dropped four of five games this past weekend at the Maverick Invitational in Arlington, Texas. The pitching staff and defense struggled as the Bulls were outscored 49-19 over the five-game stretch and committed 12 errors.
“Our pitching is struggling and we’re making errors,” said head coach Trena Peel. “We’re still trying to find that right combination. We’re getting on the job training and we’re having growing pains right now.”
The team’s first game against Sam Houston State on Friday was the first of the team’s two shutout loses of the weekend. Sam Houston State took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third inning. The team then surrendered a three-run fifth inning off of two home runs. Buffalo freshman pitcher Charlotte Miller and sophomore pitcher Bobbi Langlois combined for three earned runs and six strikeouts, and the Bulls ultimately fell 5-0.
The team’s lone win of the weekend came on Saturday against Incarnate Word, 10-7. The Bulls scored four runs in the top of the eighth inning, headlined by an RBI single by sophomore outfielder Ashton Earnhardt. Incarnate Ward put up one run in the bottom of the inning, but it was not enough to make a comeback.
Senior catcher/third baseman Alexis Curtiss was the most effective offensive player on the Bulls on the weekend. She had nine hits and three runs scored over the five game stretch. Her batting average on the season is now .515.
Earnhardt had a great stretch as well, also collecting nine hits and three runs scored throughout the five-game stretch. She improved her batting average on the season to .407.
Buffalo will not play at home until the end of March. But Peel doesn’t think playing on the road is reason why the team is struggling.
“We’re used to traveling a lot,” Peel said. “ We’re a young team. We’ll get into the stride of things and things will work itself out.”
Buffalo will play another five games on the road next weekend. The team’s next game is set for Friday when they travel to Georgia to take on the Kennesaw State Owls (5-2) in the Black and Orange Challenge. The game is set for 11 a.m.
email: sports@ubspectrum.com
Photo: Paul Hokanson/UB Athletics
