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Softball team hits road bumps
 Media Credit: Rick Gion/NDSU Spectrum SCSU utility player Amy Anderson slides into third base during Thursday�s doubleheader at North Dakota State. The Huskies lost both games, 8-1 and 7-6.
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 Media Credit: Rick Gion/NDSU Spectrum SCSU utility player Abby Bourman crosses the plate after her home run in game one at NDSU.
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The SCSU softball team, who had seemed to be riding through the regular season as smoothly as a car driving on Interstate 90 in the plains of South Dakota, have apparently hit the ups-and-downs of the Rockies the past few days. The kind of bumps they hit did not take place in the Rocky Mountains of the great western states, though, but in the aforementioned state of South Dakota, and its counterpart to the north, North Dakota.
The week started out, however, with a few highpoints. On Tuesday, just a day after the Huskies had won a school record 14 softball games in a row, the most recent version of the USA Today/NFCA Division II Women's softball poll came out. The Huskies, who broke the old record of 13 consecutive wins, had previously been ranked as the 24th best softball team in Division II. They made a great leap to the number 13 spot.
The national ranking could make the Huskies even better. As first baseman Brooke Gentzler put it in an earlier interview, "(The national ranking) pumps us up, and we want to live up to the expectations of being a nationally ranked team."
The second piece of good news came out Wednesday as the Huskies found out that their "Ms. Utility," Abby Bourman, was named the North Central Conference player of the week. This was the result of her performances in last weekend's Augustana Invite, in which she led the Huskies with 6 RBIs.
Then the bad news started to roll in for the Huskies. Wednesday the Huskies were scheduled to officially open their North Central Conference season with a doubleheader at North Dakota State University, who is ranked just above SCSU at the No. 9 position in the poll. Those games, however, were postponed to the next day, due to rain, not snow this time. The game at Concordia-St. Paul that was scheduled for April 11 was also postponed to a yet to be determined date.
It would have probably been better for the Huskies if those games had not been played at all. SCSU lost both games of the two-dipper 8-1, 7-6 and broke their 14 game winning streak. The Huskies' only run came off of the home run that the NCC Player of the Week Bourman, hit, her second moon ball of the season. In the second match-up of the evening junior Tiffany Rose (9-1) pitched and received her first loss of the season. Even though the Huskies are ranked No. 13 it doesn't guarantee wins for SCSU.
As Husky pitcher Nicole Webb said, "It's great to be ranked, but it comes down to winning games."
The Huskies then traveled to South Dakota for the North Central Conference North-South Invitational Part I. Part II will be played this weekend in Sauk Rapids. The weekend started out with a tough game against the top-ranked team in Division II, University of Nebraska-Omaha. The Huskies lost their first matchup of the season with Omaha 8-0 in the spring tournament that took place in Georgia. This game was no different, although State did score a few more runs this time. The outcome was still the same, however, as the Huskies lost 8-3.
After the loss to Omaha, SCSU took out their aggression on Morningside College with a 12-2 blasting.
The turns, twists, bumps, and humps, and whatever onomatopoeia could be used to describe it, kept on coming in SCSU's roller coaster weekend as they lost to Augustana College 3-1, and their conference record fell to 1-4.
Yesterday seemed to be the best day for SCSU since Wednesday. The Huskies won both of their games on Sunday, 7-4 over NCC Foe University of Northern Colorado, and 8-3 over the University of South Dakota.
After the rough few days of softball SCSU's record still remains at a respectable 25-7 overall, but a sub-500 conference record of 3-4.
As head coach Paula U'Ren said earlier in the year, "We're still growing as a team, and will continue to improve throughout the year."
This week does not look any easier as they have to play UNO again on Sunday in Sauk Rapids. This game should be a great one as the Huskies will try and repay Omaha for the last two whoppings they put on SCSU. SCSU should have an edge though as they play in Sauk Rapids.
The Huskies play again on Thursday at MSU, Moorhead and then play for the first time at home this season as they play two games against the University of North Dakota at 3 p.m. Friday at Selke Field.
Ben Dunsmoor can be reached at: [email protected]
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