BYU won a pair of games Saturday afternoon, 3-0 against Southern Utah University and 5-4 against Salt Lake Community College.
Head coach Gordon Eakin found positive and negative aspects of the two games.
“Our pitching continues to be our strength,” Eakin said. “We didn’t play very clean softball today — we had a lot of mental errors, some physical errors in [the last] game, and poor base-running. We’re still not hitting the ball very well. We fought back in both games and did a really nice job of taking care of business. But I was disappointed today because we just didn’t play the game well. Made too many mental and physical errors.”
There were rough spots during the games, including missed catches, dropped balls and miscommunication.
“I feel like we have a lot to work on, in both games,” Messerschmidt said. “But, I feel like we started coming together better the second game, even though it was a closer score and they were up on us at times. I feel like it was more productive; we learned more from it, and we saw that we could come back.”
Eakin viewed the game against SUU as a defensively well-played, but filled with mental errors on the base passes. In the game against SLCC, the defense fell apart — missing signals and more mental errors, which probably cost the Cougars a few runs, Eakin said.
FRIDAY GAME
It was a fast-moving and low-scoring game Friday evening when BYU softball took on Snow College, winning 2-0.
The Cougars continue to learn as they advance in their preseason, mixing Blue-White scrimmages with games against other teams and learning the value of personal improvement and competition.
This game was an opportunity to work on improved offensive and defensive struggles found in Blue/White scrimmages earlier in the week.
“We feel really good about some things, and we need to get better on some other things,” assistant coach Vaughn Alvey said. “All in all, the thing that I like most is that our kids fought really hard. Our pitching was good. Defense had really good sparks of being what it’s going to be — we need to tighten it up just a little bit. And a lot of that is that it’s early in the season, not so much experience, kids in new spots … so as they get more comfortable with that, we’ll be better.”
Alvey and the players approach the games and scrimmages as occasions to enhance their understanding of the game, to see different situations.
“It’s really good to have experience, especially when you’re as young as we are, in game situations,” Alvey said. “And then have the ability to call time out and go out and say ‘Hey look, this is what we did, and this is what we should’ve done.’ We can create situations that we need to get better at in a scrimmage.”
For catcher Anna Hudson, a freshman who’s learning the ropes of college versus high school softball, the biggest difference is speed.
“Everything is just going, going, going — there’s no down time,” Hudson said. “In high school you had time to think, basically contemplate all the things you did wrong. Now you’ve got to get over it really quick.”
Hudson likes the weekly scrimmages and the weekend games. She views the scrimmages as working on things needed to be worked on and then blowing people away at the games.
A positive note of Friday’s game was the return of Tiffany Messerschmidt, a senior who received a concussion after an outfield collision a few weeks ago.
“[Messerschmidt’s] impact on the team is invaluable,” Alvey said. “She’s fast. She’s one of those kids that when she turns the light switch off at night, she can get in bed before it gets dark, and that speed is kill. Her leadership as a senior, her experience level in leadership is so valuable in the chemistry of our team. Instead of worrying about her, now she’s here, and she’s helping everybody be better.”
