Getting Banged Up

With the majority of their Spring travel out of the way, the Radford Highlander softball team have been focusing on some games a little closer to home. They had a tournament over in Blacksburg at Virginia Tech last weekend. They started the weekend off strong with a 1 to 0 win over Bryant University before falling in their game later that day to Penn State 15 to 4. While none of these games were broadcast in a format we were able to watch, we did get the chance to follow the stat line. I was thinking the other day it would kind of be cool if we could at least follow and audio feed of the games, but it doesn't seem many places do that sort of thing anymore.

One thing that was encouraging to hear the other day when their game was broadcast, was the fact that their competition in the early season is really rough. The commentators didn't seem to think the Highlanders would have much trouble once they get to conference play despite their losses in the preseason. I think that is an important thing to remember.

Saturday they had another two games with the first pitting them against Boston College. They were able to secure a win in that game 3 to 2 before falling to Virginia Tech later in the day 8 to 2.

Finally, on Sunday they faced off against James Madison and sadly they were handed a shut out loss in that game 11 to 0. It's been kind of frustrating to watch the games because our niece really hasn't gotten that much play time. It's not like they are blowing the other teams away, so I am not sure why the coach wouldn't want to try some other things on the field and at bat. I understand she is only a freshman and it probably takes time to earn her spot, but I just worry she is going to get disappointed one time too many. I know this has been hard for her, but I am so proud of her that she continues to push through it.

Radford has a game today that will be broadcast on ESPN+ later this afternoon. I'm looking forward to watching that. They are playing Campbell University which is a team they lost to by a pretty big margin earlier in the year, but since this is a home game for Radford, I am hoping that tilts things in their favor a bit.

Then, this weekend Radford is hosting their own invitational with teams like Lafayette, and ETSU attending.

Meanwhile, the Tiffin Dragons had a rough weekend with three of their four games being losses. I was talking to my niece the other day and she said she was glad she made the decision to stop playing softball. Oddly enough, she is now coaching softball, which I think she will do amazing at.

Tiffin lost to Embry-Riddle University 4 to 2, then Rollins College 4 to 1, and finally Assumption University 3 to 2 in extra innings. The one game they did win was against Caldwell University 3 to 0. I think things will pick up for the Dragons once they make it into conference play, but only time will tell...