Westminster softball completed six games on its annual spring break trip to California, allowing the team to more than double its amount of games and play in good weather.
"California has been a great experience for our team," said Westminster Head Coach Sara Stafford. "We were fortunate to play three top NAIA programs over this week and were competitive in all six games, which is a big step in the right direction for Westminster softball."
Despite going 0-6 on the week, the team spent the six games continuing to improve and get time in playing on an outdoor field, something they had only been able to do four times this season due to poor weather conditions in the Midwest.
In the first series of the week, the Blue Jays faced Marymount and fell 9-1 and 10-1. The runs were scored on a triple from Taylor White to score Torie Thurston, and an RBI from Hannah Fuglaar.
On Monday of the trip, the team traveled to Costa Mesa and faced VanGuard. The only Blue Jay run of the series was scored in the second game in the fourth inning on an RBI from Mikala Guthrie to score Hannah Schroeder.
The Blue Jays faced San Diego Christian on Tuesday in the two closest games of the trip.
In the first game, Westminster fell 5-2 but scored two runs in the fourth inning to tie the game at two runs apiece before San Diego Christian came back to win it in the sixth. Lauren Huskey recorded an RBI double along with another RBI from Guthrie on a sacrifice fly.
The Blue Jays fell 5-4 to the Hawks in game two with all four of the Westminster runs coming in the first inning, again with the RBIs coming from Huskey and Guthrie on two singles. The Hawks came back to score four runs in the third and added the final run in the fourth to take the win.
Stafford took time to recognize a few of her freshman players that stood out this week. "Our freshman pitchers Bailee Zemianek and Elizabeth Davis both stepped up and came in big when they were needed," she said. "Laney Rosson had a great trip at shortstop and handled a lot of hard hit balls this week."
"We had a lot of great hitters but we are trying to get more consistent," continued Stafford. "We made some adjustments in our last games and we were able to hit more line drives. A lot of our hard hits were caught, but hats off to our opponents for great defense as well. Overall, this was a great learning experience for our team."
Westminster returns back to Fulton where the team is scheduled to take on Iowa Wesleyan to open up St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play Sunday at Blue Jay Field. The first pitch of the doubleheader is set for noon.
