On Wednesday, the University of Connecticut Women’s Softball team will face off against the University of Rhode Island Rams. The one-game series will take place in Rhode Island on March 17at 4 p.m. EST.
It is the first game for the Huskies since their weekend tournament against Duke, the University of North Carolina, the University of South Carolina and Elon University from March 5 through the March 7. Last weekend, the Huskies were meant to play three games against Georgetown but all three games were canceled.
Now, the Huskies are set to face off against the 0-8 Rams. Their most recent game was an 0-20 loss to James Madison University which ended in five innings under the mercy rule. The one before that was a 1-11 loss against the same team. Before that, a 6-11 loss to Stony Brook. The Rams have consistently failed this season to mount anything resembling a pitching game or defensive effort, a fact which has cost them.
That is a good sign for the Huskies, who at times have struggled to score runs. They’re also coming off a rather negative performance, an 0-7 loss to Duke that capped off a 2-3 weekend. The Huskies are sitting at 6-9, a better record than the Rams but a bad sign for the team who was excelling before the Coronavirus ended their last season. The Huskies have also played almost twice as many games as the Rams, allowing them more opportunities to win.
The Huskies have often seemed to struggle with pitching and defense this season, relying on a duo of pitchers in Payton Kinney and Meghan O’Neil, both of who have struggled throughout the early season. In their 1-4 weekend tournament they gave up 21 runs while the batters only managed to score a total of 14, including only scoring one run in three games.
However, many of the games both teams have struggled through recently were against stronger teams. This could be a bit more even of a matchup which could give both teams a chance to show what they can do when in a relatively even matchup. This could be the opportunity that both teams need to show they can keep up and put on good performances, both offensively and defensively.
It will serve especially as a chance for the Huskies’ pitching unit to once again show up, given that the Rams have been relatively bad offensively this season. After struggling against batters from Duke, the University of North Carolina and the University of South Carolina, the University of Rhode Island’s struggling offense might allow the pitchers for the Huskies to shore up their struggling performances in recent games.
The game will also serve as the lead-in to a weekend of games for the Huskies. They’ll be playing again on Saturday and Sunday in a series of three games against Creighton University before coming back to Connecticut for their first home games next week. The Huskies schedule is getting relatively busy, and as the season ramps up every team needs to prove that they can keep up or else they are going to get left behind.