Although they only stand at 1-1, the early goings of the 2019 season have been bizarre, to say the least, for the Rowan softball team.
At this point in their schedule, the Profs were schedule to have played 11 games, but due to weather, nine of the 11 scheduled have been either cancelled or postponed for dates TBA.
Even more, the results of both games played have been mirror images of each other.
In the season opener against McDaniel College, the Brown and Gold put on as much of an offensive display as a defensive one. Senior Carly Anderson, the reigning New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) Player of the Year, went 3-for-3 with a walk and a three-run home run in the top of the fourth that gave Rowan its 7-0 lead. Junior pitcher Lauren Shannon, who posted a 14-2 record with a 1.68 ERA last year, pitched a complete game shutout with seven strikeouts and just four hits allowed.
And, talk about getting the first-game jitters out of the way, freshman outfielder Morgan Zane took a pitch deep to center for a two-run home run.
Fast forward just an hour later. That whole mojo would stop its tracks.
Jesse DeDomenico, the NJAC’s leader in ERA for the past two seasons, fell into trouble early and often. By the end of the second, Christopher Newport University was up 5-0. It wouldn’t stop there, though, as the Captains tacked on another four runs in the third to end DeDomenico’s day. She went just 2 1/3 innings, giving up eight earned runs on eight hits and walking four.
The bats went cold too in the game that only went five innings, tallying just four hits, two of which were from Zane and Anderson.
With the result, Shannon was able to take out some good from it.
“Even though it was a tough loss, it showed us where we needed to grow,” Shannon said. “We will be a completely different team the next time around.”
As of right now, the next time the team will take the field will be during The Spring Games, held in Kissimmee and Clermont, FL, from Mar. 15-22. The Profs will play 12 games during the trip. The team went 10-2 last year in Florida.
Last season, the Brown and Gold put on a historic display, going 39-13-1, winning the NJAC and winning both the NCAA Regional and NCAA Super Regional before falling to Case Western Reserve University in extra innings in the NCAA Championship Tournament.
“We want to be pretty competitive and build on what we did last year,” Shannon said. “As long as we keep it together and all have the same mindset, we can get as far as we did.”
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