Only a sociopath couldn’t help but feel empathetic for Lobo softball coach Ty Singleton.
Considering how last year went for the head coach and his team (13-35 overall), a win over No. 25 Baylor on Saturday could have been the alarm clock to awaken a hibernating, slumping program.
It didn’t happen. The Lobos were swept in a four-game series against the Bears, losing 8-0 and 7-3 on Friday and 17-4 and 5-4 on Saturday.
Even more painful, Singleton said, is just how close the Lobos were to winning.
In the bottom of the seventh, down 5-4, infielder Shaunte Duarte stepped into the batter’s box.
To her left, standing in the coach’s box, down the third-base line, Singleton had black shades on, rendering his eyes, and emotions, undetectable.
All the while though, Singleton brimmed with positive thoughts.
“I’m thinking she’s going to drive that run in,” he said.
He had no reason to suspect otherwise. To that point, Duarte was 2-for-3 from the plate, with a RBI-double and a base knock.
With two strikes, Duarte fouled off consecutive pitches, looking for a ball she could drive far enough to bring in the runner.
“I really wanted that at-bat — runners on base, two outs, bottom of the seventh inning,” Duarte said. “Everybody wants to be in that position. I was feeling really confident and just waiting for that pitch.”
That pitch, however, never came. Duarte struck out swinging at a change up, typifying the weekend that was.
“She hadn’t thrown one since maybe Saturday,” Duarte said. “Being the No. 3 batter on the team, that’s a pitch that you want to throw to try to get them off balance and to get them to swing at something that’s not going to go as far.”
Coupled with Saturday’s razor-close loss, and barring an obstruction call which went against UNM in Game 2 on Friday, the Lobos were on the cusp of splitting a four-game series with Baylor, no small feat for this squad.
“The second game both days we performed much better than the first game,” Singleton said. “About the only positive I feel I can pull away from the first game each day was that we got to face a lefty who’s a dominant pitcher, throws the ball 70 miles per hour and took them to Super Regional. And we hit her. We put the bat on the ball.”
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Except they couldn’t when it counted most.
In the sixth inning of Saturday’s second leg, a bizarre string of events damned the Lobos’ comeback.
Lobo catcher Jessica Garcia singled, past the diving glove of Baylor’s right fielder to start the inning, followed by a sacrifice bunt by Cassandra Kalapsa, which advanced Garcia in scoring position at second.
Strangely, with one out and a runner in scoring position, Singleton instructed Jessica Lujan-Dresslar to lay down a bunt. Lujan-Dresslar entered the series batting .405, but was a combined 0-for-5 to that point.
It didn’t work. Lujan-Dresslar was thrown out at first and then the Bears retired the next batter, stranding Garcia, the tying run, at third base.
Singleton said he didn’t like Lujan-Dresslar’s at-bats on Saturday, forcing him to make an unconventional coaching decision.
“It’s not the typical thing to do, to bunt somebody to second base, but it would have put the go-ahead run on, tying run at third base,” he said. “It was not a sacrifice bunt; it was a bunt for a base hit. A hitter is instructed, ‘It needs to be a base hit or foul. It needs to be soft.’ It was close. It was a bang-bang play at first.”
And just like that the Lobos are four games below .500, with contests against Illinois and Missouri coming up this Friday and Saturday, respectively.
Somehow, Singleton said, he needs to get his team playing consistently before that.
As of Saturday, though, Singleton, shoulders slumped, candidly explained that he didn’t quite understand why his team alternates between playing indifferently and competitively.
“I wish I could give you that answer right now. I don’t have an answer for that right now,” he said. “We have to get to the bottom of that. We got to get that figured out. It’s unacceptable for them to come out two days in a row like that. It’s absolutely unacceptable.”
