BOISE − It’s been a long month for the Idaho State softball team.
That was clearly evident Friday and Saturday after getting swept by Portland State in its Big Sky Conference series opener. The Bengals fell 3-1 Friday at Bobby Welch Halle Field on the campus of Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa. They then dropped a 7-4, 9-4 doubleheader Saturday at Huber Field at Dona Larsen Park where Boise State calls home.
ISU (18-20) went just 7-14, including losing nine of its last 12 games in the month of March
“We’re going on eight consecutive weekends being on the road. I know I’m tired. And I can only imagine how our kids are feeling,” Idaho State head softball coach Andrew Rich said. “This was supposed to be the home opener right? You’re supposed to be at home. You’re supposed to be in your own bed.”
Idaho State hasn’t even been on its own field since last October.
Miller Ranch Stadium is still in the midst of undergoing renovations that include a new backstop, netting and scoreboard. Snow and low temperatures last week prevented the concrete for the backstop from being poured. So the games had to be moved more than 234 miles west.
Even getting to be one of the first teams ever to play under the new lights at Dona Larsen Park, wasn’t much of a consolation prize.
“I need goggles for the nighttime because I can’t see,” said fifth-year infielder Angelica Cano, who totaled a team-high five hits in the doubleheader. “I’m really glad we get to play on our home field next week for sure. Because I’m really tired of traveling and playing teams that are not on our field.”
It showed.
The Bengals started the unexpected “road trip” with just four hits on Friday before missing out on some key opportunities and having to try and play catch up Saturday.
In the opener, leadoff hitter Gracie Smith stepped up to the plate with two runners on, two outs and the game deadlocked at 4-4 in the bottom of the sixth inning. But even after Paige Simpson and Highland alum Jenna Kearns stole second and third base, respectively, the junior outfielder struck out swinging.
The Vikings (14-16) then plated three runs in the top of the seventh before Idaho State stranded another two runners in the loss.
“We had all the momentum after the steal, but the strikeout completely flipped the momentum to their side and they used it,” Rich said. “That was the game in that spot right there. If we find a way to get a lead, I like our chances in the seventh to get three outs and find a way to get that one.
“That’s who we want up in that spot. We couldn’t ask for anything more in that spot.”
Unfortunately, the Bengals were never really in that position again for the nightcap.
They found themselves chasing Portland State the whole time following a 3-0 hole in the top of the fourth inning. Sophomore utility player Kennedy Dudley did cut the deficit down to 3-2 with a two-run RBI double to center field.
But the Vikings extended the lead right back to three on a two-run home run by Paetynn Lopez in the very next inning. ISU got back to within a run again on a pair of Portland State errors in the bottom of the fifth inning.
That’s the closest it got for the rest of the game, though. The Bengals left a total of five runners on base over the next three innings.
“That puts a lot of pressure on your offense when you’re always having to chase, chase, chase,” Rich said. “We want to play from ahead. It helps us with the style that we want to play. It helps us get some rhythm going. We just never were able to get any rhythm going. We only had a couple leads this weekend altogether. So when you’re playing from behind, it feels like there’s a lot riding on every single at bat, every single pitch and it just makes it really tough for your offense for sure.”
The defense didn’t fare much better.
Portland State had at least 12 hits in all three games for a grand total of 39. The pitching staff, which is currently without the services of Lizzy Tommasini, who is out with an injury, had just as many combined walks (nine) as it did strikeouts.
“It was like death by a 1,000 cuts with single after single and just base runners everywhere all over the place all weekend,” Rich said. “They did a great job. They came prepared and they had a good plan for our pitching staff.
“That was the best we’ve been hit pretty much all year.”
The Bengals are now eight games under .500 since starting the year 6-0 − the best in program history. They haven’t won back-to-back games since the Whataburger Invitational in Stephenville, Texas back on Feb. 18.
However, the reigning Big Sky Conference regular season champions still remain optimistic. The real home opener − a three-game series against Sacramento State, starting at 1:30 p.m. Friday − should help with that.
“Last year, we didn’t start off strong in the preseason, but we stepped it up in conference because that’s what really matters,” Dudley said. “So I think we just need to flip that mindset and be like, ‘No, we can do this.’ We still have a lot of games left. But we can flip it around.”
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