The Portland State women’s softball team claimed two wins out of five at the Easton Desert Classic last weekend in their second weekend of nonconference play to start the season. The Vikings are now 4-7 overall this year.
In the first game, against California State University, Fullerton, sophomore Alicia Fine drove in junior Sadie Petersen in the bottom of the sixth inning to put the Vikings up 3-2. Sophomore pitcher Raya Johnson then shut down the Titans in the seventh to record the victory.
The Vikings fell 5-2 in their next matchup with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, but it was not for lack of effort. After the Rebels came out strong early and scored five runs in the third, Vikings sophomore Brittany Hendrickson ended what would have been a shutout by slamming a two-run homer in the top of the seventh. Unfortunately for Portland State, the Rebels retired the next three batters to get the win. Head coach Tobin Echo-Hawk refused to be discouraged by the setback.
“We can’t get deflated on the field when they start to make plays,” Echo-Hawk said. “It’s hard to come back from a 5-0 ballgame, but we made baby steps against UNLV until the end of the sixth inning, and that says a lot about our team—that we’re not going to give up.”
The tendency to allow high-scoring innings by their opponents was a recurring issue for the Vikings over the weekend. The other two Portland State losses, against the University of Nevada and the University of California, Berkeley, also featured a big scoring burst that the Vikings were unable to overcome. Portland State gave up seven runs in the fourth inning to Nevada, including a grand slam, and allowed five runs in the bottom of the first to Cal.
“When we have one bad inning and it turns into six or seven runs, it’s hard to come back,” Echo-Hawk said. “We’ve talked to the team about limiting that and making sure we don’t allow the momentum to shift after they make one good run.”
The Vikings were able to avoid those kinds of lapses in their other win during the tournament, over Brigham Young University. Portland State opened that contest with a solo home run from junior Becca Bliss, and then got two more home runs from Fine and senior Alexa Morales to claim a 5-3 victory.
“Any time you get a big hit, especially something out of the park, it gets the kids excited,” Echo-Hawk said. “We’re starting to find our groove on offense. The biggest hit this weekend was when [Morales] hit the home run against BYU to put us ahead. It was a good game, and that kind of just blew it open.”
With the offense in a better place than last season, the Vikings are working to develop some depth defensively. In an effort to not have to rely on senior Anna Bertrand pitching in every game, the Vikings experimented with freshman pitchers Karyn Wright and Melissa Masters against Nevada. Although Wright took the loss, Echo-Hawk said that it is important for these younger players to learn from the experience, get back to practice and figure out a solution.
While the weekend was not an overall success for the Vikings, the wins over BYU and Cal State Fullerton clearly demonstrated the squad’s potential.
“The great part of this weekend was that we saw glimpses of what we really have to offer as a team,” said senior Carly McEachran, who slammed four home runs at the Kajikawa Classic the previous week. “Now it’s just about putting the pieces together and striving for consistency.”
Portland State continues its nonconference competition on the road this weekend, with four games against nationally ranked Arizona State University. The first game is slated for Friday at 6 p.m. Live stats can be found by visiting goviks.com.