Author: Rachel Kaplan
Oxy’s women’s softball team faced consecutive challenging matches this past weekend, losing all four games they played. On Friday, April 2, the team lost against Whittier with scores of 7-6 and 9-1, and subsequently lost against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) on Saturday, April 3 by 12-3 and 10-0.
Whittier and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps’s strong offensive hitting helped them gain solid leads, putting them so far ahead on the scoreboard that the Tigers could not catch up.
The Poets started off Friday’s games strong, scoring five runs early in the game, with the Tigers struggling to keep up. In the fifth inning, Patricia Phillimeano (first-year) hit a home-run, bringing in three runs, and late in the seventh inning, Alyssa Smith (senior) hit a double, bringing in two more runs.
However, despite their efforts, the Tigers were still one run short of winning the game.
In game two, the team was unable to recover from Whittier’s early lead, losing the game with only one run on the scoreboard.”We had some rallies going,” Gabriela Chavez (junior) said. “We had a bunch of people on, we just didn’t get those clutch hits, and a couple of times, we did . . . but we just fell short.”
Saturday’s game was equally disappointing, as both games lasted only five innings. The Tigers led the first game with two runs, but were unable to hold onto their lead as the Athenas scored a run in the second inning, hit a grand slam in the third inning and went on to score seven more runs in the fourth and fifth innings.The second game fared worse as Claremont-Mudd-Scripps shutout the Tigers, preventing them from scoring any runs.
However, although the Tigers are now on a six-game losing streak, they are maintaining high spirits.
“It’s extremely difficult to be down by six or eight runs and still fight to stay in the game, but we do it every day,” Shanna Yackel (sophomore) said in an e-mail interview.
With only two more weekends left of play, the Tigers will not be able to end the season on top, as their conference record for this season is 3-13 and their overall record is 6-18.
Regardless, they are continuing to work together as a team. “I think we all mesh really well together. Most of us are juniors, so we’ve been together for three years now. And our freshmen that came in, they just fell into the dynamic of the team really well,” Co-captain Olympia Powell (junior) said. “We all have a common goal in mind and we’re all willing to work for that.”
Despite a season of tenacious play, the women’s softball team will not make it to the next round this year, but there is still hope for more victory in the future as the team continues to grow in experience. “Next year,” said a spectator in the crowd after Friday’s games.
The softball team’s next game is on Friday, April 16 against Pomona-Pitzer.
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