The only possible explanation for Lobo pitcher Samantha Gatson’s “it’s not that bad” attitude is she’s being tutored by the University’s famous eternal optimist, Mike Locksley.
Or she got hit in the head by a line drive.
No matter how many times the UNM softball team was reminded how grisly its play was against No. 2 Arizona, the players were prepared with some silver-lining remarks. Of the most mystifying, Gatson predicted the Lobos will finish in first place in the Mountain West Conference standings, despite being 10-19 overall after Sunday’s run-ruled 14-0 disaster to the Wildcats, part of a three-game shelling handed out by Arizona.
The Lobos dropped three contests to the Wildcats — the first two, 8-0 on Friday and 10-2 on Saturday — and have one more nonconference game against in-state rival New Mexico State on April 6, before Gatson supposes UNM will make its magical run in the conference portion of the season.
“We’re taking it all in conference. We’re going to be No. 1,” she said. “No exceptions.”
When reminded of how the Lobos have fared during nonconference, Gatson shrugged, hardly moved by the assertion that UNM has lost 12 of its 29 games this season by five runs or more.
“Hey, (nonconference) is nonconference,” she said. “We’re going to take it.”
Whatever the case, there was no shortage of bad over the weekend, said Lobo head coach Ty Singleton, in a self-depricating manner.
“This is just one of those games that we’re going to have to put behind us,” he said. “For the week, there’s positives. For today, there’s little things here and there, but I don’t think it’s of value to share publicly.”
Man, Singleton was spot on.
Where to start? The Lobos gave up 32 combined runs on 36 hits in the three-game series. Meanwhile, they didn’t have a hit on Sunday.
By the time the third inning rolled around, the Wildcats had an insurmountable lead, using an eight-run second inning to build a 9-0 lead.
“When you start off 9-0 before you’ve even had your No. 5 hitter come up, yeah, that’s demoralizing,” Singleton said.
More realistically, Gatson said that was one of the best hitting staffs the Lobos faced all year.
“Even if you hit your spots, throw the ball where you want it, they get a bat on it,” she said. “There’s no excuses for the amount of runs that we gave up. It was a poor weekend.”
If it’s any consolation, the Lobos have played one of the most unforgiving schedules, facing No. 1 Washington, No. 2 Arizona and No. 3 Missouri (now No. 4) — all resulting in losses. UNM has also faced Baylor, which was ranked 25th at the time, and then-No. 21 Illinois. Those two were also losses, but the Lobos squeezed by 23rd-ranked Louisville, 6-5, on March 19.
Throughout, Singleton said, UNM’s been bombarded with injuries to key members of its roster. Shenise Cox recently got the cast on her right arm removed. She’s been limited to pinch-running situations for much of the season. Katie Gilmore has been battling a bad back, and Singleton said he is resting her until conference. On Saturday, Erin Brandow took a line drive in the knee, while Danielle Castro has been hobbled by a quad injury.
Aside from injuries, why would Singleton, knowing how brutal those games could turn out to be — and did turn out to be — schedule such punishing competition? Well, Singleton said, this schedule was composed about two or three
years ago.
Admittedly, Singleton said he thought the program would be farther along in the recruiting process.
“It’s not fun to look at the win-loss record,” Singleton said. “But this type of schedule can definitely knock you back or it can make you stronger. I think we’ve gotten stronger.”
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Thing is, does Athletics Director Paul Krebs share the same feeling? Or will Singleton and the Lobos be judged strictly by their win-loss total at the end of the season, when Singleton is re-evaluated?
“It’s very possible,” Singleton said. “I can’t control what the administration, what the public, what anybody else thinks. For me personally, there were some mistakes early that we’ve been paying for ever since. But we’re climbing out, and we’ll just see how long we get to climb out until we’re moving forward.”
