Heading into the second game of its doubleheader Sunday against Notre Dame, the Syracuse softball team was seeking a positive end to what had been an otherwise dismal weekend. The Orange entered the contest 0-for-the-weekend after losing, 7-0, to Notre Dame earlier in the day and dropping two games to No. 18 DePaul on Saturday by scores of 8-0 and 4-3.

The Orange battled the Irish into the bottom of the third inning. With two outs and runners on first and second in the scoreless contest, Syracuse freshman pitcher Brittany Gardner was called for violating the 10-second rule, which prevents a pitcher from holding the ball on the mound for more than 10 seconds.

The Notre Dame batter was awarded first base in a call that left Syracuse head coach Leigh Ross frustrated.

‘We just caught a bad break with a bad call from the umpire,’ Ross said. ‘I’ve never had one of my pitchers have that call made against her. She was waiting for her sign. Nobody ever makes that call. It just totally threw us off. You can’t blame a game on one call, but sometimes, you just need a break.’

Two batters later, Notre Dame third baseman Heather Johnson deposited a three-run double into left-center to put the Irish up, 3-0. Gardner and Syracuse would never recover, losing the game, 10-2, in five innings.

It was a fitting end to a frustrating weekend for Ross’ squad – one that saw them outscored by a total of 29-5 in their four losses. The weekend sweep at the hands of the Big East’s two best squads was a wake up call for the Orange one weekend after jumping out to a 3-1 record in the Big East.

‘DePaul and Notre Dame are very strong programs, so you know going in you’re going to have to play your ‘A’ game and hope you have some luck in order to have a chance to win,’ Ross said.

The Orange offense was stagnant throughout the weekend. SU managed only one hit in the first game against DePaul and senior hurler Tracie Adix on Saturday. The Orange was one hit again in the opener Sunday.

The only meaningful offense of the weekend for the Orange came from senior Erin Gray, whose three-run double in the fourth inning of the second game at DePaul gave the Orange a 3-2 advantage. It was their only lead of the weekend – one that lasted only until the bottom half of the frame when DePaul tied the contest.

After Gray’s double, the Orange offense went on a 14-inning scoreless streak, which lasted until sophomore Keri Casas managed a meaningless RBI single in the fifth inning of the finale against Notre Dame.

‘We just didn’t get that spark to get (our offense) going,’ Ross said. ‘When you get down by so many runs you start pushing and trying to do too much when you’re up at bat. We just need to keep it simple.’

Ross’s offensive options have been limited by injuries to freshman outfielder Whitney Born and sophomore catcher Kim Weinstein. The Orange now has just two pinch-hit options off the bench in Casas and Jordan Rosen.

‘It’s really tough to manipulate the lineup when I have two bench players and a pitcher (Gardner) who doesn’t hit, so I’m not really thinking of lineup changes right now,’ Ross said.

More concerning to Ross than her team’s offensive struggles and injury problems was the way the Orange responded to adversity throughout the weekend. Ross said she felt the team didn’t show an adequate amount of effort after the team fell behind early in the weekend’s games.

‘I think going into DePaul, after those first few runs in game one we gave up,’ Ross said. ‘The one thing I addressed and I’ll continue to address is that we still walk off that field dirty. You can control hustle and attitude. That’s something I think we could have done a little bit better job of this weekend.’

The submissive attitude led to a team meeting prior to the Orange’s second game at Notre Dame to address the team’s lack of effort. Ross said she was pleased with the way her team responded with increased diving and defensive exertion. That effort went for naught, though, after Notre Dame took a 9-0 advantage in the wake of the 10-second call on Gardner.

After the tough weekend, Ross feels her team is still trying to get rid of the doubt lingering from some of its early season struggles.

‘We all felt a little frustrated and disappointed,’ Ross said. ‘We came off a 3-1 weekend and were thinking, ‘Hey, we played pretty good there.’ It’s just hard to face some really strong teams and keep that fear of ‘Are we going to lose again?’ out of our minds.’

Published on April 2, 2007 at 12:00 pm