Colorado State softball faced Utah State at home Thursday for the first game of a three-day series. The Rams fell to the Aggies 14-9. The final score appeared closer than what the game actually was, with the Rams being shut out for three straight innings, finally fighting back late in the fifth inning.
Coming off a 3-3 run, the Rams hoped to add to their winning column; however, it was a quiet day for the Rams. After the first inning, the Rams were already up 5-0 thanks to first-year Kyra Smith’s home run — batting three runners in — and senior Carolina Buffalo batting two other runners in.
However, USU went on to hold CSU to zero runs from the second to fifth innings.
“We kind of were playing relaxed, like I said, ‘okay, we need to fix that,’” sophomore Kaylynn English said. “I feel like we’re thinking, ‘Oh, we got them tomorrow, we got them Saturday.’ Instead of like ‘let’s win this game right now.’”
The Rams hit well with 16 on the day but also hit four airs, and a sloppy defensive day hindered them.
“We could have handled them today,” English said. “We play good defense usually, so I feel like if we clean that up, we can hit, and we can play defense and win.”
English sparked some life into the Rams’ run drought at the bottom of the fifth inning when she batted two runners in, but the Aggies continued to build on to their already existing lead.
While the Aggies fell to 3-4 in conference play, coach Jen Fisher still believes strongly in her squad.
“We’ve lost two one-run games and two games where we had like one bad inning,” Fisher said. “And so, you know we’re closer to being 7-0 than what you see on the outside.”
Fisher believes the team is a bit hesitant with some plays and would like to see the team play with more confidence and a more aggressive defense.
“We definitely just want to play a little more aggressively,” Fisher said. “We got a couple of young players, and even our veterans are second-guessing themselves just a little bit.”
The Rams struggled to find an answer for USU’s defense and pitch; however, the coach believes it all comes down to the mindset and wants to see her players come together.
“We just need to know that we can and like staying confident, staying up,” Smith said. “Like, the other team had a lot of energy, and we just need to have more than them.”
The game did have some tension between players when an Aggie accidentally shoved a CSU player to the ground while outing her.
“A lot of times you get into some rah-rah, back and forth between teams, and we don’t need to engage in that,” Fisher said. “We just want to be the one with the bat in your hand. We want to be the one who gets the ball hit.”
With the biggest score difference being 11-5, the Rams showed some fight at the end and helped proe they can compete with the Aggies. Fisher knows the team needs to approach the next two games with a different mindset.
“We want to just have the same preparation,” Fisher said. “I think it’s just going to be more than that. Are we getting in the right mindset before we get out here? That really comes from the veterans, and hopefully they can talk to each other.”
After a chirpy game one, CSU is set to face USU for game two of three on Friday in Fort Collins.
“Our goal is to keep getting better every game and make the tournament so that we can have a great showing in the tournament,” Fisher said.
Reach Aron Medrano at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @RMCollegianSpts.
