Shannon Welch/Staff Photographer
The softball team opened conference play last weekend, hosting Amherst for a series starting on Friday, March 28. The team struggled mightily, being outscored 27-14 over the weekend and starting the season off 0-2 in conference play. The would-be third game of the weekend was suspended in the fifth inning due to rain; it will be continued at a later date.
On Friday, Wesleyan was given an unexpected home field advantage: the Cardinals were scheduled to visit the Lord Jeffs for the contest, but due to poor weather conditions at Amherst, the game was hosted by Wesleyan. However, the Cardinals were unable to translate this extra boon into success.
It didn’t take long for things to get out of hand. After scoring a run in the first by stealing home, the Lord Jeffs went up 6-0 in the bottom of the second. This wasn’t a knock on the performance of starting pitcher Su Pardo ’16, who had a solid outing. Rather, Amherst’s scoring was facilitated by three errors made by the Cardinal defense. All six of the runs scored by Amherst in the first 2 innings were unearned.
The early deficit proved too much for the Wesleyan offense to handle. No Wesleyan hitter could manage to muster more than one hit, and for the most part the Cardinals couldn’t string anything together. By the end of the third inning, Amherst had tacked on another two runs to bump its lead up to 8-0, and Wesleyan only responded with three of its own.
Pardo, who pitched the entire game for the Cardinals, took the loss despite allowing just two earned runs.
Things only got tougher for Wesleyan during the first game of the Saturday, March 29 double header. Starting pitcher Amanda Roosa ’16 had a very difficult outing, giving up eight earned runs on 10 hits in just 1.1 innings before being pulled from the game. Her replacement, Captain Laura Getchell ’14, was better, but still struggled, allowing five additional runs over the course of her 3.2 innings. In all, Amherst scored 13 runs on 17 hits.
Again, Wesleyan’s offense struggled. The Cardinals put together only five hits, earning four runs in the process. Catcher Abigail Rutt ’17 had two hits, and third baseman Jill Gately ’15 knocked in two RBIs in an otherwise slow day for Wesleyan’s hitters. This meager showing was not enough to keep the Cardinals in striking distance, and Wesleyan lost 13-4 by the mercy rule after just five innings.
The Cardinals showed more life in the second game of the double header and the third game of the weekend overall, leading 7-6 into the top of the fifth inning. However, the game was postponed at that point due to weather.
This is certainly not how the Cardinals wanted to start off 2014 NESCAC play. Coming off a strong showing last year, expectations are high for Wesleyan this season, regardless of their young roster. The Cardinals will look to right the ship against Hamilton, against whom they square off on Friday, April 4.