After being on the road for most of the season so far, the Fresno State softball team returned home this week for the Bayer Crop Science Classic.
Last week, the ‘Dogs were in San Diego taking part in the Campbell Cartier Classic where they won two out of the five games. There was tough competition with nationally-ranked Houston and Baylor competing.
The tournament went a little bit differently with the ‘Dogs winning five out of six games with their only loss coming against No. 11 California. On Sunday, California won the game 6-2 in the tournament finale.
Coach Margie Wright talked about the fans and how they showed up.
“I thought it was a fantastic crowd last night and today,” Wright said. “And I wish we would have played a little bit better for them. Hopefully, they’re all going to come back and they’ll see better games.”
With the team having a successful week, Wright gave some thoughts on the tournament.
“I think we had a really good weekend,” Wright said. “[California] played a very good game against us. The ball had eyes today. Every ball that got hit found a place where no one was playing. They’re fast.
Speed kills. It’s really tough to defend that so we know what we need to do if we do have to face them later on. It was a good opportunity.”
Next week, the ‘Dogs hit the road again for the Judi Garman Classic in Fullerton, Calif. They face some tough competition in nationally-ranked teams Texas, Washington and Michigan.
Wright sees the challenge of playing some good teams, but has confidence in her team.
“We’re going up against five ranked teams,” Wright said. “I think it’s going to be a challenge, but I think we’ll matchup pretty well. We need to take a couple of days off here and relax a little bit. I think we’ll go down there with the idea that we can beat anybody.”
After the tournament in Fullerton, the ‘Dogs start Western Athletic Conference play and begin their quest to be crowned conference champions.
Last year, the ‘Dogs played against Hawaii and won in one of the games but in the end the Rainbow Wahine would win the series to win the WAC Tournament. This season, Hawaii has raced out to 16-5 record and is currently in second place.
One team that is defying expectations is New Mexico State, who was picked in the preseason projections to finish fourth in the conference, but right now are sitting in first place.
Boise State was picked to finish third in the conference and they are currently in fourth but are riding a nine-game winning streak.
With some of the conference teams playing well this season so far, Wright gave some thoughts on the upcoming dates in conference play.
“They’re relatively short trips with the exception of Louisiana. It’s tough going over to Hawaii to play especially because we end up playing them late in the season and that’s kind of grueling. I know our team is looking forward to conference play and I think it’s going to be good.”
