WNC softball pitching struggles in losses

It has become increasingly clear that if the Western Nevada College softball team is ever going to get off the schneid, the bats are going to have be the reason.

Despite scoring their second-highest run total for a four game series, the Wildcats dropped the final two games of their contest, 12-7 and 16-5, Saturday to Southern Nevada at Centennial Park. They scored 21 runs in the four games, but gave up a whopping 61 runs, all in losing efforts.

"The only thing we need is the pitching, which we knew was going to be a problem this year," WNC coach Scott Rasner said. "The other stuff has all come together, that's what I was hoping for at the beginning of the year. I said, 'Hitting is going to be pretty descent, defense will be alright.' Pitching was always kind of our weak area because we have average pitching and we're short on that."

The Wildcats (4-16) have just two pitchers, Alyson Herman and Ambar Huish, who had a combined earned run average of nearly 7.00 coming into the series. Herman pitched in all but seven innings of the four games and took two of the losses.

The WNC pitching was just what Coyotes' shortstop Amy Aicher needed. The sophomore, who was a member of the 2008 All-Scenic West Athletic Conference first team, was hitting .143 coming into the series. She hit five home runs in the series, with her final one coming Saturday in the second game to give the Coyotes a 9-5 lead.

"She had an awesome series," WNC catcher Devin Steelman said. "I give total props to her, it's not an easy thing."

Aicher's offensive production was a small sample of what the Wildcats have to avoid if they are going to start winning a few games. The offense, while it looked good in the series, isn't powerful enough to overcome a large run deficit and the pitching isn't strong enough to keep runs off the board.

WNC took a brief lead in the first game of the day when they scored three runs in the fifth inning to go up 7-5. But the pitching couldn't contain Southern Nevada, who scored three runs of its own in top of the sixth before leaving the bases loaded when Christina Jones popped out to first base on a full count. The Coyotes (8-4 SWAC, 11-6) then clamped down on the WNC offense and kept it from crossing the plate the rest of the game.

In their only wins of the season, the Wildcats scored 55 runs in a four-game series against Colorado Northwestern earlier this month.

Now it's all about finding a balance.

"The girls are hungry," Steelman said. "We come out here and we practice all week and we come here, ready to hit the ball. I think that shows every weekend. We're getting more and more hits and definitely getting known better for our bats."

"Our goal is to hit as much as we can and make other teams catch up to us."