By Ed Morrone
Despite managing just eight hits in two games, Pride softball head coach Bill Edwards isn’t upset, concerned, or frustrated. Believe it or not, he is downright encouraged.
Edwards’ surprisingly uplifted mood came after the Pride split a doubleheader on Tuesday afternoon with Syracuse University, winning the first game, 3-0, and dropping the second, 8-0.
The loss was ugly with the Pride making three errors right after playing nearly flawless defense in the opener. The win wasn’t much better, with the team doing just enough on offense to get by and getting a strong-although sporadically erratic-pitching performance from senior pitcher Callie Osborne. Still, Edwards couldn’t help but be optimistic, even after the 8-run shellacking.
“The first game was a great one, one of the best I’ve been involved with in a long time,” Edwards said. “Callie pitched great and we played phenomenal defense. We lost the second game, but we got some good at-bats in against a very good pitcher. We fell behind early and it was difficult to get back into it.”
Edwards’ respect for Syracuse freshman Erin Downey was evident by her stat line in the second game. Downey pitched a complete game, striking out ten, walking two, and scattering four hits. With a dominating pitching performance and the offense not producing as much as it has been in recently, the Pride was forced to try to focus on the positive performances, two of which came from junior second basemen Lisa Wambold and senior pitcher Adrienne Clark.
Wambold has come on strongly lately for the Pride (20-12) and was named Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Player of the Week on Monday. The award capped a week in which Wambold hit .636 with three home runs, a triple, eight RBIs, and several more well hit balls that fell just shy going over the fence.
Against Syracuse (13-11) in the first game she gave Osborne all the run support she needed by hitting a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning, which was her team-leading eighth of the season. In the second game, Wambold showed her all around talent by dropping a bunt single in order to get on base. Wambold had never been considered a home run hitter, so her recent power surge must come as a surprise to people. However, she stated she hasn’t done anything to improve her power hitting.
“I’m just trying to focus on getting my pitch to hit,” Wambold said. “I just want to do whatever it takes to get on base, whether it’s hitting a home run or dropping a bunt single-whatever helps the team win. It’s weird because I don’t ever worry about hitting home runs and I’m not doing anything different. It doesn’t really matter how I get on base, as long as I do.”
While Wambold remains modest about her recent hot streak that has upped her batting average to .267, Edwards marveled at his second basemen’s maturity.
“She’s becoming the complete player that I knew she would be: home runs, great defense, stolen bases-she can do it all,” Edwards said. “The key is that she’s starting to understand what she needs to do when it’s her turn to bat. She’s incredibly talented, very athletic, and is beginning to understand the game and what it is she’s looking for as a hitter.”
Despite Wambold’s continuing heroics, the most encouraging performance undoubtedly came from Clark, which ironically was a loss. Clark pitched five innings and gave up four runs while walking three and striking out one, and this is not the prototypical successful pitching performance.
However, Clark, who is arguably the team’s most important player, is still trying to work herself back into pitching shape after enduring a long illness that kept her out of action for two and a half weeks. It was her second start since the illness, and she is gradually regaining her strength, which is fabulous news for the Pride. She fought some early control problems and the loss dropped her to 6-6 on the season, but she is getting stronger and should be close to 100 percent when the team opens a three-game series at CAA rival Delaware on Friday.
“Adie is everything to us,” Edwards said. “We’re just trying to get her strength back so that she can be successful. We definitely saw flashes of the old Adie, and it’s only a matter of time before she gets back. When she’s on, she’ll win a lot of games for us.”