Rams Come Up Empty in Series Finale against Bulldogs

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Oct 11

10:00 AM

Softball

at Nebraska

Oct 11

3:00 PM

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at Nebraska - Omaha

Oct 12

10:00 AM

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Oct 19

1:00 PM

Softball

vs Northern Colorado

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Time for a rematch.

After dropping both games against Fresno State on Saturday, the Colorado State softball team was ready to take part of the Mountain West series on Sunday.

The Rams celebrated their offensive breakthrough Saturday and were ready to roll into the finale with the same fire.

Colorado State held the Bulldogs scoreless until the top of the fourth inning, when two runners made it across the plate. The Rams struggled to put runs on the board and the team ultimately fell to the Bulldogs 6-0.

The roster has been focusing on two major knots in their performance: youth and timely offensive execution.

"I feel like the score doesn't quite reflect how tenacious we were on offense," Head Coach Jen Fisher said. "They made a couple great defensive plays and I think we hit a few balls pretty deep. I think we grew a lot this weekend and we're playing a lot of younger players. I feel like we're hitting our stride; it was a good day."

Fisher's analysis holds merit. The team put up five hits to Fresno's seven, though even that statistic doesn't tell the whole story. The Bulldogs' defense pulled off some major defensive plays which robbed the Rams of any opportunity to score.

A lot of good things came out of this series, especially for the younger players. Offensively, the lineup found its eye for the ball and made contact and also accumulated several quality at-bats. Especially with Fresno State placed as the top team in the conference, this series is a good look for what to expect for the rest of the season.

The experience from this weekend will be invaluable when the team takes on UNLV in two weeks.

"Even though we lost, I feel like we put up a pretty good battle this weekend," sophomore Peyton Allen said. "Fresno is number one and we knew it was going to be a fight going into it. I think we worked together as a team and we got some outcomes we wanted and some we didn't, but it was all about the fight for us this weekend. I'm proud of our team for that and we'll come back stronger next week."

During this season, the sophomore utility player has put out some of the statistics on the team. For the season, Allen is batting .306, which leaves her just behind the team's top offensive performer, Daniella Serna. She has also already racked up 19 hits for the team.

During the series, Allen managed to collect one hit in every game. The sophomore attributes much of her success to her drive to prove herself since her last season was ended early due to the pandemic.

"I think I came out with a fire this year, having my season cut short last year," Allen said. "I just wanted to prove to everyone on this team and in this conference that we can do it even if our season was cut short. I've been working hard in the off season the whole spring and I'm glad it's showing up."

Moving forward, Fisher has the team working on "passing the bat" to string hits together. When the whole lineup is working, Colorado State can manufacture more than enough runs to secure a victory, as seen in the second matchup against Weber State last weekend.

But there's more to securing a victory than just finding an offensive groove. Especially facing the second- and third-place conference teams the next two weeks, there's a lot to work on with not a lot of time to do it.

"I think Reno is always really difficult at their place," Fisher said. "They are so dang scrappy and they're the type of team that might not have three or four superstars, but they are just good. We really gotta stay locked in when we go down there and then UNLV is going to match what we saw against Fresno. They're going to play great defense; they have the best fielding percentage in the conference last year and they were really rolling until COVID hit. They're going to have great pitching and great hitting as well."

During workouts, the team is focusing on going hard in batting practice, since "feel good BP's shouldn't exist" according to Fisher. The coach is hoping an intense bout of practice this week will be enough to push them through to a winning streak, starting in Reno.

Next up is a three-game set at the Wolf Pack's home, with two games on Saturday and the finale on Sunday.

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