The Lady Bisons softball team went 1-3 in four games at the DII Arkansas-Monticello Softball Classic last weekend.
Redshirt sophomore infielder Emily Jones said that despite the losses, the tournament did a lot for the team’s confidence and dynamics.
“We played great this tournament and really played together,” Jones said. “I think that we grew up a lot because we played some very good teams. We relied on each other a lot this weekend and you could tell that by how clean we were defensively.”
Jones said during the tournament sophomore infielder Amanda Berdon made three double plays from third base, freshman outfielder Anna Lowery hit her first collegiate career home run and senior outfielder Carolyn Clayton hit her first two home runs of the season.
Clayton said one of the goals of this tournament was to focus less on the outcome and more on the process of the game.
“A big focus all weekend was having a good approach to what you are doing at the plate and what you are doing on defense,” Clayton said. “If that all falls into place, it is not so much about wins or losses. It is how you go about playing that is more important.”
Clayton also said the team had some hard practices last week leading up to the tournament that has helped them refocus on playing to the best of their abilities.
Head coach Phil Berry said the weekend was made better by the fact that the team is a group that likes to be together.
“We got to learn a lot and work together as a team,” Berry said. “We will celebrate each day that we get to spend together as a team, and these were a few more of those days.”
The team will begin Great American Conference play today in Bethany, Okla. Berry said conference play is the focus of the team the rest of the season, but that he feels good going into this weekend and the rest of their conference games.
“We will take one game at a time, one inning at a time, one pitch at a time and see if we can turn some of those close games into victories for the good guys,” Berry said. “We feel confident that we will have the right process in place and a good game plan to take Southern Nazarene on. We like the way the team feels right now.”
The team will play at 1 p.m. today as they begin a four-game series against Southern Nazarene University this weekend.
