Junior Naomi Amu pitches vs. Weber State Oct. 18, 2012, in Salt Lake City. Amu struggled during Utah’s first weekend, going 1-2 with a 4.20 ERA.
Steve Wilson / Utah Athletics
Utah softball continues its season this weekend with five games over three days at the Easton Desert Classic in Las Vegas. The team hopes to have a more successful weekend after opening last weekend with two wins and three losses.
In order for the Utes to have a more successful outing than last weekend, the team will need to put up runs. Last year, the Utes were 1-19 when the team scored two runs or fewer. On the other side, Utah was 11-2 when scoring between six and nine runs, and the team was undefeated when scoring 10 or more runs.
“This group that we have this year is going to require a lot of runs,” said head coach Amy Hogue. “We’re going to need a good balance of pitching and defense.”
In Utah’s opening tournament — in which it won just two of five games — Utah hit a paltry .267 while their opponents hit .324.
Utah’s offense might be struggling, but its defense has been playing well. In five games, the Utes came away with nine double plays. This is three times more than the closest team in the Pac-12. The Utah defense is also atop the Pac-12 conference in assists with 62 fielding assists.
However, the area where the Utes are struggling compared with their competition is strikeouts. Utah has nine strikeouts compared to an average of 23 by their opponents. Shortstop Kelsi Hoopiiaina said this isn’t a great concern for the Utes.
“We have to put the runs up,” she said. “Our pitchers are doing good. They’re trying to get groundouts, which is their job, which they’ve been doing the last five games. We need to step up our offense.”
The pitching staff isn’t just dealing with a low strikeout rate, though. Starter Naomi Amu struggled during Utah’s first weekend, going 1-2 with a 4.20 ERA. Mariah Ramirez fared better, coming out of the opening tournament with an ERA of 3.50.
The pitching has room to improve, but the offense is undoubtedly the biggest concern for Utah. The Utes’ .267 average is 34 points below the Pac-12 average, and Utah posted it against middling competition. The road will only get tougher for Utah, and lagging bats won’t lead to any success.
This weekend should pose an opportunity for the Utes to tune their swings, though three of Utah’s five opponents have winning records. The biggest challenge will likely come from 4-1 Seattle, who beat the Utes 6-3 last weekend in St. George.
Utah will play Idaho State, Seattle, Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State and UNLV. Just like the Utes’ opening weekend, two games will be played today, one game will be played on Saturday and two games on Sunday.