It’s been a rough start for Bakersfield College softball. The season’s first three games have been losses.
On Feb. 1 BC traveled to Fresno City College where they lost 12-1 in the fifth inning. Karisa Jones, an outfielder, managed to score the only run in the fifth inning, while Fresno scored four runs in each of the first, second, and fourth innings.
“We got outplayed,” said Coach Sandi Taylor. “I thought we played nervous, I thought we played without any confidence, and it’s hard to get confidence without success, but it’s hard to have success without any confidence.”
BC’s next game was at Santa Barbara City College on Feb. 5 and the Renegades lost again 12-2. BC gave up eight runs in the second inning, though they managed to hold the Vaqueros off in the third. Katie Hoffman and Kassidi Ward both scored runs in the fourth, batted in from Kelsey Best and Karisa Jones. SBCC scored another four runs in that inning, ending the game after a dead fifth inning.
“I thought at Santa Barbara we played better,” said Taylor. “We had one bad inning that we couldn’t seem to shake, but we swung the bat with a little more confidence, and if we could just get a little taste of success I think we’ll be hooked.
“Clearly you can’t give up so many runs and not swing the bat, because if we’re going to give up 12 we’ve got to score 13. We’ve got to figure it out.”
Taylor also saw improvement on the mound but admits pitching is something that will still need work.
“We can throw a lot of strikes,” she said. “That’s not the problem. We’ve got to work at being more efficient and getting them to hit it at us, and it was better at Santa Barbara, but then we coupled that with a couple of walks and errors and so that didn’t help any.”
Earned runs dropped from 12 to two, while base on balls went from five to three.
On Feb. 7 BC played at home against Cuesta College losing 18-11. Cuesta scored one run in the first inning, but then BC held them until the fourth, where they scored four more. The Cougars scored two more runs in the fifth but were unable to stop BC from coming back hard with six runs in the fifth; Brittney Roberts, Brooke Charles, Katie Hoffman, Ward, Kylee Rice, and Jones all scored in the fifth inning.
In the sixth, Cuesta managed five more runs, including a homerun, then scored another six in the seventh inning, including two more homeruns. In BC’s seventh inning, Roberts, Charles, Savanna Torres, and Jones all scored runs. Kelsey Best also scored after hitting a homerun.
“Well I think the positive is that we finally started shaking it up like we were capable of. We just can’t give up that many runs,” said Coach Taylor after the game. She was impressed with the team’s improvement on the plate, crediting their fifth and seventh inning drives to a more aggressive play style.
“The [girls] just finally started swinging; they gave themselves a chance by swinging the bat. Early on they were too tentative,” she said.
BC will play Taft on Feb. 12 and will then have two home games on Feb. 15, the first against Santiago Canyon at 10 a.m. and then a rematch with Cuesta at 4:45 p.m.