Christian Thompson
Reporter
September 23, 2005
The women’s softball team hosted the annual Milligan College Fall Classic at Winged Deer Park Sept. 16 and 17, and posted a disappointing 1-3 record.
Junior Courtney Ruth said Coach Wes Holly told the team “this is the worst we’ve done in Milligan’s tournament.” Sophomore Cassidy Sigars added, “We could have done a lot better.”
The ladies’ lone victory came against rival King College in a 4-3 victory. Both solid batting and a tough defense were missed this weekend. When asked about the loss to Mars Hill, Coach Wes Holly said, “they didn’t beat us, we gave it to them.” Mistakes on both sides of the ball proved to be too costly for Milligan.
Facing Anderson University (S.C.), a NCAA Division II school, Milligan managed only four hits in six innings of play, with the first hit not coming until late in the third inning. Three of those hits came in the fourth inning, giving Milligan runners at second and third with only one out. Both runners were stranded on base as a result of two consecutive strikeouts.
Defensively, Milligan was fairly solid. Sigars said the team’s defense wasn’t too bad but one mistake would “snowball” into more. An example of this came in the third inning of the Anderson game. Anderson started off the inning with a double. An error was made on a routine ground ball in the infield. The next two batters both singled and the “snowball” began rolling. Eleven batters, seven runs and two costly errors later, Milligan finally recorded three outs. Milligan put themselves in a hole they were never able to climb out of, eventually losing the game 2-7.
The tournament was round-robin style with two pools of five teams each. Each team played the other four in their respective pool. The two teams from each pool with the top records would advance on to the quarter-final round of play with the winners of those two games earning spots in the championship.
Ruth said this is the first year she has played and not advanced to the quarter-final round.
The team looks to improve and rebound from this weekend.
“We need tougher defense and more consistent batting,” said Sigars.