Edward Rudman – Sports Writer
The Owls dropped both games in an afternoon doubleheader against rival University of New Haven on Wednesday, April 7 at Pelz Field.
They lost the first game 7-0 and the second matchup 13-1. The Owls moved to 6-6 overall on the season after the losses and 3-5 in Northeast 10 conference play. UNH improved to 8-4 overall and 3-3 in NE10 conference play.
“I don’t think there’s anything positive about the performance that we had today,” said infielder Sara Buscetto, a graduate student. “I think that sometimes those days happen and we have to take responsibility and say we didn’t do our best and just across the board, be better. You learn from these mistakes, you take the heart break from those losses, and you turn it into a fire and come out stronger the next time.”
The offense remained stagnant throughout both games, collecting a pair of hits in each game for a total of four. On the other hand, the Chargers had 11 hits in the first outing and 14 in the second.
Ava Fitzmaurice, pitcher for UNH, got the start on the mound in both games and improved to 6-1 on the year with the two wins. Jazmyn Martinez, a senior, got the start in game one for the Owls, dropping to 4-2 on the season, and Jessica Perucki, a sophomore, started game two, dropping to 2-3 with the loss.
“The conversation that Coach Akcer, myself and Coach Paterson had postgame was very much surrounding find something that you can do better tomorrow that you didn’t do well today,” said Head Coach Jillian Rispoli. “Other than that, we have to have a short memory and take what we can from this experience, learn something from it and move on. Dwelling on it is just too difficult so we try to emphasize that. Find some fire within yourself and use this as motivation, that’s the conversation that happens after something like that.”
Defensively, the Owls were not without mistakes, committing three errors in each game. The first game saw a steady offensive outing from the Chargers, as they were not able to put up at least one run in only the second and fourth innings.
The second game saw a more sporadic offensive effort. Five runs were scored in the first two innings and then the Chargers were unable to score again until the sixth inning, where they put up eight runs.
“What I think was different in these past few games from the beginning of the season was probably the quality of pitching,” said Rispoli. “In these last few games, I would venture to say that the competition has just become even more fierce and we need to do a better job of making those pitchers work a little bit harder.”
The Owls were able to put up a run in the bottom of the fifth of the second game. Perucki hit a double to right center field and eventually scored off a groundout from infielder Angela Barresi, a freshman.
“I think everybody just needs to do a bit of self-reflection,” said outfielder Cailey Botteon, a graduate student. “Just realize why they’re here and how fortunate we are to have a season in the first place and I think we need to take more advantage of coming out and just having fun playing as a team and lighten that fire again.”
“Other than that, we have to have a short memory and take what we can from this experience, learn something from it and move on. Dwelling on it is just too difficult so we try to emphasize that. Find some fire within yourself and use this as motivation, that’s the conversation that happens after something like that.”
Defensively, the Owls were not without mistakes, committing three errors in each game. The first game saw a steady offensive outing from the Chargers, as they were not able to put up at least one run in only the second and fourth innings.
The second game saw a more sporadic offensive effort. Five runs were scored in the first two innings and then the Chargers were unable to score again until the sixth inning, where they put up eight runs.
“What I think was different in these past few games from the beginning of the season was probably the quality of pitching,” said Rispoli. “In these last few games, I would venture to say that the competition has just become even more fierce and we need to do a better job of making those pitchers work a little bit harder.”
The Owls were able to put up a run in the bottom of the fifth of the second game. Perucki hit a double to right center field and eventually scored off a groundout from infielder Angela Barresi, a freshman.
“I think everybody just needs to do a bit of self-reflection,” said outfielder Cailey Botteon, a graduate student. “Just realize why they’re here and how fortunate we are to have a season in the first place and I think we need to
