The softball team lost four of five games over the weekend at the Rosemont Dome Invitational, an indoor tournament hosted by Lewis University in Chicago. 

On Friday, the Chargers beat the Upper Iowa University Peacocks 4-0 but lost to the Purdue Northwest Lions 2-0. Continuing into the weekend, they lost to the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs 4-0, the Lewis University Flyers 2-0, and the Truman University Bulldogs 6-2. All the teams are NCAA Division II schools in the Midwest Region. 

Head coach Kyle Gross believes the team struggled with scoring runs despite playing well against tough opponents. He thinks the team could have picked up more wins but is content with the team’s performance and is pleased with the pitching from last weekend and the season overall. 

“We competed well against some of our tougher opponents,” Gross said. “Our pitching was outstanding, as it has been. At times our hitting was there, we just did not score a lot of runs, but our energy, enthusiasm, and pitching was really good this weekend.”

Pitchers for the weekend included junior Joni Russell, senior Erin Kapteyn, and sophomore Mackenzi Maxson. These were Russell’s first games back after suffering a hand injury against Tusculum University on February 9. Senior Hailey Holtman, junior Emma Vis, sophomore Maggie Olaveson, senior Erin Kapteyn, and senior McKenna Eichholz scored runs. 

Junior Joni Russell agreed that the team’s attitude and energy was high throughout the weekend. They did not let their outlook on the game become low. 

“Everyone’s pretty good at staying positive,” Russell said. “Even though we lose a game we know that we’re still good and we can still do good things in the future. We don’t let it drag us down.”

According to Gross, this week’s results won’t significantly impact the Charger’s regional standings. Their G-MAC standings will not be affected at all. 

The teams in the midwest region are competitive, with some All-American pitchers and top 25 teams. Sophomore Taylor Lewis said she believes playing these teams will help the Chargers step up their game and rise to new levels of competitiveness within the G-MAC. 

Lewis said the teams they faced last weekend are stronger competition than others faced previously this season. However, these teams will prepare them for their upcoming conference play. 

“We need to expect more from our conference this coming season because our conference has become a lot better,” Lewis said. “So playing the teams regionally is something that is going to help us in our upcoming conference season.” 

In preparation for conference play, Gross said they will focus on bringing runners home in practices, as well as hitting. 

“We’re working on hitting with runners in scoring position, which seems to be an area we need to improve upon before conference time gets here,” Gross said. 

Russell added that, in practice, the Chargers are focusing on accountability and technique. 

“We have become slightly comfortable in certain aspects of the game, and he [Gross] has noticed that,” Russell said. “So this week in practice he has been focusing on pushing us to our limits and outside our comfort zones.”

This coming weekend, the Chargers will play four games. On Friday, they will play two games against the University of Illinois-Springfield Prairie Stars, with two games on Saturday against the Quincy University Hawks. The Prairie Stars in Springfield, Illinois will host the games.