By Loren Miller, USU Eastern Sports Information:
PRICE – Softball lost their final four-game series of the regular season to the Snow College Badgers 4-0 on Friday and Saturday.
The weekend sweep by Snow completed the regular season sweep of the Eagles. They swept USU Eastern last month in Ephraim.
USU Eastern lost to the Badgers 10-8 and 13-8 in Friday’s doubleheader. On Saturday they lost games three and four by a score of 15-7 and 8-1 respectively.
Her team didn’t get a win this weekend but USU Eastern Head Coach Brittani Richins said that the matchup against Snow helped her team.
“As a team the girls learned that the momentum of the game can change fast,” said Richins. “On another note, we had a few key players step into some roles that they have not played for us before and they were successful,” said Richins.
One of the players that really stepped for USU Eastern was sophomore Shelby Shurtliff at third base.
Shurtliff batted .500 with seven hits, three doubles, three home runs and RBIs. Defensively, she had 16 assists, three putouts and a fielding percentage of .905.
“She has gained her confidence back and that’s what we needed from her all season. She has figured out her role on the team and it’s going to be awesome to see how she does in the region tournament,” said Richins.
Other Eagles that had good weekends at the plate include Ashley Sweat and Carlye Levy who combined for 10 hits, eight RBIs and five runs.
The Eagles didn’t end the regular season with wins but as a second-year program they made a huge jump in the win total from last season.
In 2017, the Eagles won only five games during the regular season and this season they nearly won five times as many games with 23 wins.
Coach Richins said that it will be hard to move on from this team with the type of athletes and personalities on the team.
This is going to be a hard team to let go they have been so much fun and supportive when needed,” said Richins. “I have loved being able to coach this team. Their passion and will to win is unbelievable.”
Softball’s season isn’t over yet, they will move on to the Region XVIII Tournament this week in Twin Falls.
They will take on the College of Southern Nevada on Wednesday morning at 9:30 a.m. in the first round of the tournament.
If the Eagles win they will take on the number one seed College of Southern Idaho at 2:30 p.m. later that afternoon. A loss would move them to the loser’s bracket and they would play on Thursday at noon.
Last season the Eagles won their opening round game against CSN before losing to CSI and Snow in the next round of the tournament.