The Fort Lewis College softball and women’s lacrosse teams both had goals of making the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament. Neither team has had a great start to the season.
Softball has almost certainly killed its postseason hopes with its early season play while women’s lacrosse still has a lot of RMAC games left.
Softball recently played a four-game series at CSU Pueblo on Sunday and Monday and lost all four games. The Skyhawks’ record is 2-22 overall and 1-18 in RMAC play. FLC has lost 13 consecutive games.
“We just can't seem to really get over the hump,” FLC softball head coach Paige Adair said. “We're just missing one big hit or one big play that's going to give us all the momentum. I don't know; things just aren't falling our way right now … I don't know what it's going to take, but we have to figure out how to play a full seven-inning game. We play five or six innings of really good softball and it's usually one or two innings that bite us.”
The Skyhawks started the CSU Pueblo series with a 7-6 loss on Sunday. FLC led 2-0 after the first inning and led 5-2 after two innings.
CSU Pueblo responded in the fifth with five runs and led 7-6.
In the second game on Sunday, CSU Pueblo led 2-0 after the first inning, but the Skyhawks scored one run in the third and fifth innings to tie the game 2-2. The ThunderWolves scored a run in the sixth and seventh to win 4-2.
On Monday, CSU Pueblo won another close game 3-2 after eight innings. FLC struck first and led 2-0 after five innings, but CSU Pueblo scored two runs in the sixth inning to tie the game and send it into extra innings.
The final game of the series was the least competitive one with the ThunderWolves winning 9-1 CSU Pueblo led 3-0 after the first inning and scored three runs in the third and fifth to end the game after five innings.
Adair said the team hasn’t struggled with one thing: Every game has been different. It makes it hard to coach because there isn’t one thing to focus on.
Senior Emalynn Redmann has impressed Adair with how she’s stepped into the shortstop position.
FLC is last in the RMAC but has a chance to end its losing streak at Adams State in a four-game series on Saturday and Sunday. The Grizzlies are second-last in the RMAC at 2-18 in conference play. The Skyhawks will have to hit better; they’re hitting a conference-worst .208.
“When you're losing like this, it’s really easy to shut down; it's really easy to think about all of the negative things, all the things that are going right and listening to all the negative comments from people outside of our program,” Adair said. “It's really easy when you're not winning, but we need to get back to playing fun softball. That's why we all do it. Right? It’s fun. Enjoy it … My girls play their best softball when they're having fun.”
Women’s lacrosse 1-6 overall after nonconference play
The FLC women’s lacrosse team has won all the close games it’s been in. The problem is the Skyhawks have only been in one close game and have been blown out in their six losses.
New head coach Ariannah Ritter got her first win as FLC’s head coach on March 12 against William Jewell College 12-11.
William Jewell led 4-0 after the first quarter and 7-3 at halftime. The Skyhawks cut into the lead and trailed 10-7 after three quarters. FLC really turned up its play in the fourth and outscored William Jewell 5-1. Senior midfielder Diamond Velasco had the winning goal with 1:28 left.
FLC lost 18-5 at Quincy University in Illinois on Friday and 18-3 on Monday against Rockhurst University 18-3 in Kansas City, Missouri.
The Skyhawks’ six losses are by an average of 12 goals. Freshman midfielder Jasmine Nguyen is leading the Skyhawks with 14 points. Senior attack Phoebe Ramirez is right behind her with 12 points.
Only one of FLC’s six losses is to an RMAC opponent. Therefore, the Skyhawks have plenty of opportunities to right the ship in conference play and make a run at the RMAC tournament.
FLC plays its first home game on Friday at 1 p.m. against UCCS on Ray Dennison Memorial Field.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
