In the face of real-life adversity, the UW-Eau Claire women’s softball was able to win three out of four games in their first home stand last weekend.
During the week leading up to the game, several players had tragic events happen to people close to them, which in turn had an impact on the entire team. Then, on Friday, the team saw their starting right fielder get hit in the face by a pickoff throw, and end up in the emergency room.
Coach Leslie Huntington said it’s been a difficult time for her team, but she thinks that they’ve handled it extremely well.
“It’s been a very emotional and mentally trying period of days for us,” Huntington said. “So for us to go 3-1 over those days, I was extremely proud of our players and how they
responded to that.”
On Friday, the Blugolds swept a conference double-header against UW-Superior, and on Saturday they split a pair of games against fifth-ranked Central College (Iowa).
Eau Claire took the pair of games against Superior by a combined score of 13-5. Originally scheduled for Sunday, the games against Superior were moved up to Friday because of severe weather reports. Huntington said it didn’t really change the team’s game plan much, and that it actually may have helped.
“I think it actually worked out pretty well,” Huntington said. “We got to go into Saturday against fifth-ranked Central with a 4-0 conference record, which really gave us quite a
bit of confidence.”
On Saturday, the Blugolds dropped the first game against Central 11-1. Senior Sara Baumgartner said although the team struggled to score, she didn’t think it was because they weren’t hitting.
“Our bats were very consistent for the most part,” Baumgartner said. “In the loss against Central, we were getting people on base, we just couldn’t get them in.”
After the defeat over Eau Claire, Central went into the second matchup on a 23-game winning streak.
The game stayed close for the early innings, but the Blugolds went into the bottom of the sixth down 5-2. At this point, after scoring 13 runs the day before, Eau Claire had scored just three runs in the double-header with Central.
Dealing with more adversity, this time on the field, the Blugolds were finally able to get to their offense going, and hung six runs on the board in the half-inning.
After freshman Lauren Carlson went out to pitch a scoreless seventh inning to earn the save, the team’s victory was sealed.
Baumgartner said defeating such a highly ranked team has really boosted their confidence.
“We know that if we bring it, if we play well, we can beat anybody,” Baumgartner said. “We can hit any pitcher and we can play defense and keep being aggressive. I think our confidence right now is really high, and I’m excited to see where we go for conference.”
Going into the games this weekend, the Blugolds were already the no. 25 ranked team in the country, which is likely to improve after the split with Central. By taking three of the four games on the weekend, Eau Claire improved to 17-5 and 4-0 in the WIAC.
The last time the team began the season 17-5 was in 2008, when they were the eventual national champions. Huntington wasn’t ready to crown her team as the champions yet, but thinks they have shown they are capable of anything.
“I certainly think that we have that potential,” Huntington said. “I think more so this year than ever before, our players are really, really starting to believe that they can play with anybody in the country.
“This team is extremely close off the field … and I think when you combine that type of cohesion with the mental toughness they have exhibited at this point, anything is possible.”
