The 49ers will hope that their struggles in Vegas, as the phrase goes, stay in Vegas as they begin play in the Cathedral City Classic on Thursday.
After enduring crushing defeats to Oregon and Oregon State by a combined 23 runs in Las Vegas over the weekend, the Long Beach State softball team (4-4) will spend this week’s practice preparing for a new tournament while trying to forget its most recent road trip.
“We just turned one mistake into a lot of mistakes,” head coach Kim Sowder said. “We didn’t move on and, like I say, stay in the present. We let it kind of affect us.”
Among the mistakes for the 49ers were also a few promising performances, as they got two solid starts by pitcher Erin Jones-Wesley and two great offensive performances that included a 16-9 comeback win over Seattle.
“They definitely showed character in that game to battle back,” Sowder said. “I really loved what I saw from our team in that game, and I think we need to learn from that and use that in all games.”
If their hot-and-cold trend manages to follow them, the ‘Niners will need to jump on a hot streak right away, as they open the tournament with a doubleheader against undefeated No. 4 Tennessee (10-0) and No. 14 Arizona (8-2).
The Beach will have Friday off to store away the competitive Tennessee and Arizona games and look forward to Saturday’s lone matchup against Oklahoma State (5-4).
One game in two days should benefit LBSU before it concludes the tournament with a doubleheader on Sunday. The doubleheader will start with UNLV (5-5) and finish against a tough Syracuse (3-1) team, which received ranking votes over the weekend.
In a season of ups and downs, The Beach has been consistent with a few hot bats that have carried the offense so far.
This season’s latest Big West Conference standings show outfielder Brianna Stephan leading in batting average, third baseman Hannah De Gaetano seventh in batting average and catcher/designated player Karli Sandoval leading in slugging percentage.
The pitching staff has struggled as a whole so far. They rank last in the Big West with a 7.33 ERA.
“We’re going to try and focus on building our confidence with our offense and individually,” Sowder said, “and continuing to make some adjustments to where we struggled a bit on the weekend. We’ll get ready and be ready to compete on Thursday.”
LBSU will open up the tournament with a 3:30 p.m. game against Tennessee.