The University of Rhode Island softball team traveled to Cullowhee, North Carolina to compete in the Catamount Classic over the weekend.
The tournament took place from Feb. 28 to March 1 with five games on the slate for the Rams. Overall, the team finished with a record of 1-4.
The Rams won their only game 7-6 over Presbyterian College after being down 6-4 in the sixth inning. Seven players got a hit and six players scored a run in the game, highlighted by first-year Katie Knarr, who tallied a double, a single and a run, as well as third-year Kylie Bulinski, who collected a double and a single.
Although the weekend ended with a 1-4 record, the team found positives in the losses, according to Rhode Island Head Coach Mike Coutts.
“I think it’s just everybody doing their job and knowing their job in each situation,” Coutts said. “The thing we’ve talked a lot about is being unselfish, and when you go to the plate, that’s ‘what can I do right now to help the team win,’ not necessarily ‘I need to get a hit.’”
This mindset is something that the coaching staff has been working on with the team, according to Coutts.
“We’re just trying to get the kids to understand how to play the game together,” Coutts said. “It’s about helping us by moving a runner and getting on base, taking a walk or [sacrifice bunt], or whatever the case may be.”
Second-year Sarah Trosin earned the win against Presbyterian, the first of her collegiate career.
“[Trosin] goes in there and works hard every day,” Coutts said. “She’s got good focus; she communicates well with our pitching coach, Caitlyn Fallon. For her to be successful, she needs to have her changeup; she’s got a really good one, and she had it in that first game.”
On Saturday in the loss against Western Carolina University, the team only posted three runs despite having 12 hits.
“I thought our effort was there on Saturday, and unfortunately you lost,” Coutts said. “Sometimes you can do everything right some days and lose, and do everything wrong some days and win.”
The Rams took their second loss of the weekend against North Carolina A&T University 7-3 on Saturday. A consistent performer throughout was third-year Mandi Hanewich, who posted three hits and two runs over the weekend.
“I don’t dwell on my performance personally,” Hanewich said. “I think I look at the team performance first. I am happy with how I played, and I was happy that I could contribute in the ways that I could.”
The last two games of the weekend both ended via mercy rule, with final scores of 13-1 against Western Carolina and 11-1 against Presbyterian.
“Sometimes there are games that you just have to get rid of,” Coutts said. “We just got our butt kicked, and it was disappointing because I didn’t think we came to the field ready to play on Sunday.”
In the losses, a few players got the chance to gain valuable experience due to injury, something important to the team, according to Coutts.
“We just don’t have enough depth in softball to overcome those things sometimes,” Coutts said. “On the other side of it is that it’s giving people more experience that maybe weren’t going to get as much experience.”
Going forward, Coutts put a scope on what the team needs to improve on.
“The message at practice is going to be that we have to learn to compete right from the first pitch and be ready to go,” Coutts said. “Some of it is just the players individually looking at their performance and their preparation and figuring out what [they] need to do differently so [they] can be ready to go.”
The players are buying into the process and evaluation, according to Hanewich.
“Some of the losses this weekend definitely stung, and we definitely had to process that,” Hanewich said. “We are just learning more about each other and what we need to work on. Practice is going to be great this week, and I think that this weekend is going to be very successful.”
Next up for the Rams is a trip to Baltimore to participate in the University of Maryland Baltimore County Round Robin tournament. The tournament begins on Friday and finishes up on Sunday.
