Good times never seemed so out of reach

The UNM women’s softball team fell 9-5 behind a five-run inning from Colorado State
Sunday at the UNM Softball Complex, completing a two-game sweep by the Rams.
Head coach Ty Singleton, echoing John Madden’s obvious and direct style of quote, summed up the weekend in which the Lobos dropped two games and fell to 10-29 overall.

“Colorado State played better than we did,” he said. “That is my overall impression.”
The Rams started the game with a run in the first inning. The Lobos evened it with Jessica Garcia singled to get on base, stole two bases, then was driven in by Shenise Cox’s RBI.

The second inning started on a whimsical note as Neil Diamond played through the speakers.
“Oh sweet Caroline, good times never seemed so good.”
Not for the Lobos.

The music quickly faded, as did the feeling that Diamond’s words gave to UNM fans as Rams’ infielder Caitlan Stem parked a ball over the center field wall, bringing in three runs. A quick Lobo pitching change didn’t do much to stop the bleeding. Colorado State drove in three more before the inning was done.

“They are good hitters, so they are going to get hits,” Cristin Anderson said. “It’s hard to get five runs to get put on you, but it’s all about how we come back and respond to that. And I think we did a couple innings later. We came back and scored four. I think it’s about responding, whether they score or not.”

After the Rams put another two runs on the board in the top of the fifth, the Lobos loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom part of the inning. Kerry Hodgins scored Shaunte Duarte on a sacrifice fly, after Duarte tagged up at third.

Then, Anderson cracked a ball over the center field wall, bringing in the remaining to base runner and pulling the Lobos 8-5.
Anderson said she would focus on the home run rather than the loss.

“We have had a rough season of course,” Anderson said. “If you are going to stay down and be negative about everything, it is not going to get any better. So you have to take the positives and take the good and learn from that.”

The Lobos dug themselves so deep in the opening innings that a four-run fifth only brought the Lobos to within three.
The Lobos have only played 12 games in which they held their opponent to less than seven runs.
If the Lobos want to win, Singleton said that needs to change.

“If we are giving up more than seven runs, that explains the record right there,” Singleton said. “We are not going to win very many ball games. That is something we need to improve.”

Even though Sunday’s scoring got out of hand, Saturday’s game against the Rams was a step in the right direction. The Lobos held down CSU batters, losing 2-1.

“The thing that was a contrast from yesterday to today is that our pitchers made many more good pitches (yesterday),” he said.
But Singleton couldn’t explain why Saturday’s pitching didn’t carry over to Sunday. He jokingly said the only thing he could think of.
“Prettier day today. Maybe that was the challenge,” he said.