The Cornell women’s softball team heads into weekend two of the George Mason Patriot Classic after a strong start to the season and tournament last weekend. Following the trend of last year’s overall 6-6 record at the classic, Cornell came away with two wins against Rider University and two losses against Rutgers and George Mason, respectively.Cornell came out strong in its first game against Rider, posting a final score of 9-1. However, later that same day, The Red found itself struggling to score runs and pull out a win versus opponent and host of the classic, George Mason, losing 6-1. Coming off its loss against the Patriots, Cornell faced fierce competition in its game against Rutgers, struggling to find a place on the scoreboard until the fifth inning. In the end, Rutgers was able to score an impressive five runs in the last two innings, leaving The Red trailing by eight through the games finish.However, the women were able to come back and finish the weekend off strong once more against Rider. “The first weekend down in Virginia is always a bit tough because our competition typically has at least a weekend’s, if not more, worth of games on us,” junior outfielder Christina Villalon said.Heading into weekend number two of the classic, The Red is more confident after a week of play and practice. Cornell will start off Saturday against strong competitor Monmouth College, who head into the weekend with a record of 4-2. The women will continue the three-weekend classic with two games against the Longwood Lancers, who hold a striking 9-4 record for this season and one game against the host Patriots.Although The Red is to face some very strong competition in the weekend to come, Villalon added that, “Coach Blood usually puts together a balanced practice plan over the course of the week that allows us to get in at least a little bit of work on everything.”Additionally, the women will come into this weekend not focusing on the team’s performance from last week, but rather concentrating on the current opponents and what Cornell has worked on in practice.“You can’t get complacent with your performance on a week-to-week basis; sometimes you are going to have a good weekend and sometimes you are going to struggle,” Villalon said.Although the women struggled against the Patriots last weekend, with another win and more practice under their belts, the team is sure to be aggressive competition for the tournaments host, as well as for the other teams the Red is to face during weekend number two of the classic.
Original Author: Anna Fasman