Red Softball Swept by Syracuse

The softball team traveled up north to Syracuse yesterday afternoon to take on the Orange in an out-of-conference doubleheader. The Red (31-9, 10-2 Ivy) came in hot, winners of their last five games. Syracuse (23-13, 8-4 Big East) entered the day winners of their last three, and would ultimately continue their winning ways by shutting down the Red offense on their way to a sweep.
The Red was unable to get anything going offensively all afternoon. The Red totaled nine hits over the two games, but Syracuse pitcher’s quieted the Red’s bats so they were unable to string enough hits together to put runs on the scoreboard.
[img_assist|nid=36893|title=Beware of the changeup|desc=Softball faced some tough pitching in its double header against Syracuse. Orange pitching was able to take 11 strikeouts against the Red over both games.|link=node|align=left|width=|height=0]
“Their top pitcher, Jenna Caira,” said senior Jessy Berkey, “is probably the best pitcher we have faced or will face this season. She was really, really tough. She had the most ridiculous changeup that I’ve ever seen. She really kept us off balance all day.”
The Red was able to put runners into scoring position, but could not manage to get a hit when they most needed it.
“We had opportunities,” Berkey said. “But we couldn’t capitalize on them. A good pitcher like that is only going to make so many mistakes, but when she did we couldn’t take advantage of them.”
The Red has enjoyed a large amount of success all season long. Although they would have preferred to win, the loss will help serve as motivation to keep working hard to improve.
“Of course [it will help us get better],” Berkey said. “We’re not invincible and we know that; this well serve as a good wake-up call for us. We’re really fired up to get back out there this weekend [against Columbia].”
The Red will take their lessons from their losses to the Orange, but will not dwell. Investing too much attention into one unsuccessful afternoon is not something that the squad is looking to do.
“We’re definitely going to keep doing what we have been all season long,” Berkey said. “We’re playing four games with Columbia this weekend but we’re going to take it one game at a time. It doesn’t matter how good you think your team is, winning four in a row against one team is a very hard task. We’re going to focus on our pitching and getting good hits every single game and hopefully we’ll like the outcome.”