The Lady Bulldog softball team has been playing with incredible
stride in the last few weeks. The team returned to campus Monday as
the champions of Troy Cox Classic tournament, going a perfect
5-0.
The Bulldogs beat Miami (Ohio) and Nevada-Reno on the opening
day of the tournament and never looked back. They came out with
their bats blazing on Saturday scoring a combined nine runs in wins
over Illinois-Chicago and IPFW. This set up Sunday’s championship
game with the Colorado State Rams. With a 5-1 lead in the bottom of
the seventh inning, the Dawgs were cruising to victory. However,
the Rams rallied for two runs and had another two runners on base.
Coach Jay Miller brought in Stephanie Owens, who forced the final
out with only one pitch, and won the game for the Bulldogs.
Three members of the team were bestowed with all tournament
honors. Centerfielder Iyhia “I-Mac” McMichael delivered another
solid performance for the Lady Dawgs, going 8-17 with four RBIs,
giving her the second best batting average in the SEC. Catcher
Jennifer Waterman batted an incredible .583 during the tournament,
catapulting her into second place on the team batting average list
with a .381 average. Sophomore pitcher Melissa Massey rounded out
the three All-Tournament Bulldogs, pitching more than 20 innings
over the weekend and allowing only two earned runs. This
outstanding series of games also earned Massey the honor of being
the SEC Player of the Week.
“When I look at how my game has progressed from last year to
this year, it’s amazing,” Massey said of her pitching career, “but
there’s always room for improvement, and that means I just have to
keep working hard and be that much farther along for next
year.”
“I think this tournament did good things for us,” Miller said.
“We had some problems on defense, but we also had some really good
plays. Krystal Tillman had a diving catch in left against Miami
that saved the game. Jennifer Jessup also made a couple of great
plays at key times over the course of the weekend. These types for
plays really turned the tide in a couple of games and helped us
win.”
Before the season started, Miller said that the question mark to
the Bulldogs’ success was their pitching staff. After this weekend,
however, his assurance in the Bulldogs’ mound presence is much
higher.
“Our pitching really came into its own over the weekend,” Miller
said. “We were only one out away from pitching five complete games.
Obviously Melissa (Massey) had a great weekend, but I was also very
impressed with the way Courtney Frank and Jennifer Nelson pitched.
These games were huge confidence builders for the entire
staff.”
With their success in New Mexico still fresh in their minds, the
Bulldogs must now look ahead to a tough tournament this weekend at
the Florida State Seminole Challenge in Tallahassee, Fla. The team
will face 11th ranked Florida State three times in three days along
with two games against the Pittsburgh Panthers.
“This tournament should be a good measuring stick for us,”
Miller said. “We proved we could hang with the better teams in the
nation when we went to the Fiesta Bowl Tournament early in the
year. Now we have a chance to see how far we’ve come since then and
whether we can win at a national level. If we can go down there and
fix some of our defensive mistakes and be aggressive on the bases,
we can definitely win a few games.”
FSU is one of the better teams in the country due their balance
of good pitching a good hitting. Their team ERA of 1.41 is tops in
the ACC, while their offensive lineup is equally potent, led by
Jess van der Linden, who is batting .561 on the season and was
named a National Player of the Week on Feb. 19. The Bulldogs will
have to work hard on offense to keep up with the Seminoles
hurlers.
“We really just need to stay focused and be confident,” junior
slugger Jennifer Waterman said. “When I go up to the plate I need
to just clear my head, and be selective with my pitches.”
The pitching staff also must try to contain the deadly Seminole
sluggers.
“At this level, the worst player can crush one on you,” ace
starter Melissa Massey said. “So, I just pitch my game, and pitch
every batter the same way.”
So how does Miller think the Bulldogs will match up with the
Seminoles?
“Well, like the saying goes, good pitching beats good hitting
any day, and vice versa,” Miller joked. “But we’re an offensive
club and we’re going to go down there and score some runs. So if
our pitching continues to improve like it did last weekend, then
this could be an excellent final tune-up for us before SEC
play.”