On Tuesday, Feb. 28, Texas A&M softball coach Trisha Ford and several players spoke a few words following their return from California. The Aggies split their games over the weekend, picking up wins against BYU and California State University Northridge, while losing to No. 2 Oklahoma and No. 1 UCLA, scoring zero runs in the latter two games.
Here’s what we learned:
Learning from the experience
“I think we showed a lot of fight in our games in California,” sophomore pitcher Emily Leavitt said. “I think even though we didn’t get the results that we wanted, we had some really good games. I think if we just cleaned up a few things, we had some really close games against some really good teams.
Freshman infielder Amari Harper added onto this sentiment, suggesting the team was able to learn from its mistakes and it was beneficial that the mistakes happened against great talent.
It was also emphasized that the team is very young, and there is still lots of room for improvement. With five freshmen, who are still getting acclimated to the college game, and six transfers, this team is still learning how to play together. This means that the showing this weekend will likely not be reflective of the team in the future.
“[The tournament in California] showed to a lot of people that with coach Ford coming in, with even the new transfers coming in, a whole new team, that we’re not here to mess around,” Harper said. “We’re not here to play. We’re here to compete and win.”
The strength of this year’s non-conference schedule was highlighted as well. The players both seemed enthusiastic about playing such tough competition now as it will allow them to be ready to compete in the SEC. How they have played up to this point has given the whole team a boost of confidence.
Moving forward
Ford also echoed the sentiments of the players, saying that the tournament was overall a success and highlighting the quality wins against BYU and CSUN. She then moved on to discussing this upcoming week and the games they have ahead of them.
“Happy to be home this week and in the state of Texas to be honest with you,” Ford said. “Tomorrow’s game is going to be big. That’s a game that we better make sure we come out ready to play because Houston’s good. If we don’t come out ready to go they will bite us in the butt.”
She then stated the problems that the Aggies dealt with over this past weekend, mainly fielding and clutch hitting, would be areas of work as they continue throughout the season. That being said, Ford said she was confident that the Aggies were growing up at an adequate pace. She felt as though the team was really starting to understand that they can compete with any team.
“When I took over the program they said [they can compete with anybody] but I don’t know that they really felt it,” Ford said. “I think now they can feel it. Hopefully that hunger will drive us a little bit more, to do a little extra.”
Junior catcher Julia Cotrill suffered a knee injury over the weekend and Ford commented on her status.
“She is day-to-day at this point in time,” Ford said. “I don’t foresee her being able to play this weekend. All in all it’s not season ending, so she’s gonna rehab … We’re gonna get her going and make sure we’re smart with her. Obviously she’s an integral part, both defensively and offensively, so the biggest thing is to have her ready for when it really matters.”
The Aggies return to Davis Diamond for the first time since Feb. 11 in a game against Houston on Wednesday, Feb 29. This will be the first opportunity for the fans to watch with a ranked team on the field, as the Aggies are ranked No. 22 in the D1 softball poll and No. 25 in the ESPN poll.
The maroon and white will then take part in a tournament in Waco on Saturday and Sunday. There they will play two games against Sam Houston State and the red-hot Baylor Bears, who have only lost one game on the year and are now ranked No. 19.