Softball Battles Mother Nature, Emerges With 3-3 Conference Record

Since their return from Arizona, the softball team has run into a string of hardships including tough matchups, conference enemies and Mother Nature herself. Due to the amount of snow and rain in the St. David’s area, the team has played a limited number of games since March 8. In the first two doubleheaders that the Eagles were able to play, they dropped all four games. Two were played against Haverford (3-4,0-8) and two were against Eagle Road rivals Cabrini (5-6, 4-8). On March 28, the ladies faced their first conference doubleheader against FDU-Florham and topped the Devils in both games winning 11-2 and 9-6. In the next game unaffected by rain, they dropped two games to the DeSales Bulldogs 4-1 and 6-4. The third conference matchup saw the Eagles split against King’s College 10-7 and 5-4. In game one captain Kasey Williams was able to lift the team with a second inning grand slam. Since Spring Break the team has gone 3-7 making their total record 4-16 with a 3-3 record in conference play.

Erica Pyla-Gibson catches a fly ball. Erica Engle | EU Sports Information

Although they haven’t been able to play as many games as they had scheduled in this time period the Eagles have still managed some impressive numbers. Erica Pyla-Gibson leads the team with a .500 batting average, although she has only competed in a limited number of games. For players that have over fourty at-bats, Ashton Tomlinson is leading with a .324 batting average. Pyla-Gibson also leads the team with an on-base percentage of .568. (Those who’ve seen Moneyball know this is a vital stat.) On the opposite side of the field, captain Emily Houck is currently fielding with a perfect percentage. Houck, K. Williams, infielder Kelsey Clever and outfielder Tomlinson are the only four players on the roster to have seen the field for all 20 games thus far. As for the pitching side of the game, Haleigh Williams and Alyssa Welsh have taken the mound for the majority of innings. H. Williams has pitched 53 innings with an ERA of 3.04 and batters are hitting .275 against her. She has also pitched six complete games. Currently, H. Williams holds a win/loss record of 3-4. Welsh has pitched 43.2 innings with a high ERA of 6.25, while batters are also hitting .398 against her. Among these innings Welsh has pitched two complete game and stands with a 1-5 record for the season.

The team as a whole is looking very solid this year, batting .273 and fielding with a percentage of .930. Unfortunately, these stats are still lower than the opponents they have faced, but those opponents were mostly the Division I athletes they met up with in Arizona. Adversaries are currently batting .350 against the Eagles and are fielding with a .961 percentage.

Houck and K. Williams were able to give some insight to the team. “Expectations for us are so low around the league that I think sometimes we put too much pressure on ourselves to prove them wrong and that can make things more difficult for us sometimes,” said Houck. Yearly, the team puts together goals that they would like to achieve throughout the season and K. Williams was able to give a glimpse into those. “Take the season day by day. From practice to a game we have to come 110% focused. Our main goal is to make playoffs but we won’t focus on that goal until we get to that day. Right now it’s winning those conference games, and learn[ing] from our mistakes,” she said. Overall, the team is showing a lot of strength through the hardships they are facing. Other teams seem to notice the close relationships these girls share. K. Williams put these relationships into perspective, “I have never been on a team where we are all so close. We pick each other up when we need too and we have each others’ backs.”

Catch the softball team at home for the following games on 4/15 against Stevenson in a cross conference matchup, 4/23 against Franklin and Marshall in an annually competitive game, and for the last home game to celebrate senior Houck on Saturday 4/25 against conference foe Delaware Valley.