Losing to a better team is one thing. But when a team loses to itself it makes the loss that much more bitter.
The Penn State softball team (0-5) did just that this weekend at the Palm Springs Classic as it saw both its offense and defense fall apart throughout the opening weekend of its season.
Softball coach Robin Petrini saids she thought the team might have a little trouble offensively, she didn't expect it to be as bad as it was. She also expressed a great amount of concern regarding the team's poor fielding effort throughout the weekend.
Facing four of the top 10 softball programs in the nation could cause problems offensively. Especially due to the fact that each team had already played at least seven games and that Penn State had only two returning starters.
"This was the first time we've seen live pitching in a while," Penn State outfielder Leigh Murray said. "But it did show us we need to focus on putting the ball in play more."
Defense is a different matter. Fielding rests solely in the gloves and reactions of the players who have honed their skills throughout their careers.
Penn State committed 18 errors in the five games over the weekend. Many of them cost the Lions not only runs, but any chance to get back into the game.
Problems popped up immediately for the Lions. In their first game against No. 3 Arizona (16-0), Penn State hung tough through the first four innings, trailing only 1-0 going into the fifth. That's when everything fell apart.
An error that allowed Arizona's Autumn Champion to reach first base seemed to open the floodgates. Two errors and four runs later, Arizona had a dominating 5-0 lead through five innings. The Wildcats closed the door on Penn State in the sixth as they ended the game early with a 10-0 win.
In the end, the finsihed with Lions seven errors. However, making the transfer from inside to outside may have caused some of the early miscues.
"Arizona was our first game on dirt," shortstop Barbie Pierce said. "Anytime you go from inside on turf to outside on dirt it takes some getting used to."
The Lions' offense also failed the team against Pacific (12-2) and No. 6 Georgia (9-2). Combining for just two hits in those games wasn't enough to earn the team a win in either game.
Games against No. 1 UCLA (13-0) and No. 8 Stanford (11-2) saw Penn State's fielding problems return. Trailing 2-1 to the defending national champion Bruins, the Lions kept the game close, giving up only two runs in the first three innings. However a two-error fourth inning saw UCLA go up 3-0 and Penn State erase its hopes of a comeback despite a two-run home run from the bat of Katie Stauffer. The Lions fell 5-2.
Penn State's defensive shortcomings came to a head when the team finished the weekend against Stanford. Penn State's Marisa Hanson and Missy Beseres combined one-hitter was wasted as the team still managed to lose 1-0 because of four errors in the field.
Despite the problems early on, the players still were still optimistic.
"Our record doesn't look so good after the weekend," Pierce said. "But overall we came out of it knowing what to work on. We're not going to be playing teams this good all season. So it's a good outlook for the rest of the season."
