Looks like I was right

Softball
Jeremy Rice

I said on Friday on the Daily Collegian's website that UMass couldn't take the easy road out of Amherst this year like they did in 2006. And they couldn't.

Oklahoma, the No. 2 team in the nation - though shaky in its first contest against Colgate - got used to the weirder than usualy New England whether (nice Thursday, crappy Friday and Saturday, nice but windy Sunday), and the Sooners muscled their way through the Amherst Regional.

The Minutewomen could have gone one of two directions. They could have been the championship-caliber squad the powered past Temple in the second round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament, sharp in all phases of the game, of the one that defeated Saint Louis in the A-10 championship, sloppy defensively, stagnant offensively, and just not sharp in the circle.

The chose the latter, and against a team like OU, that just won't fly. One of the drawbacks of playing in a weaker conference like the A-10, you get used to getting away with comitting three errors and only getting four hits in a game and still somehow winning 5-0.

That wasn't going to happen against Oklahoma, and UMass is now done 'til next year because of it. The Minutewomen just were not at their best, and it would take no less than the Maroon and White's best to beat the Sooners.

The Minutewomen had their chances, but did not the get big breaks they used oh so often in the regular season. The Sooners didn't bobble grounders in the infield. They didn't mis-play fly balls in the outfield that led to triples. And Lauren Eckermann was on her game in the circle, and she was certainly far better than anyone the Minutewomen had seen in the last two months.

Despite all of that, UMass lost both its games to the Sooners by a total of four runs. And the 6-3 loss that sent the Minutewomen home for good was a one-run game until one very unusual play caught the left side of the infield looking rather sheepish.

This team is very young. They will lose just two starters (center fielder Candice Molinari and first baseman Amanda Morin) and their designated player (Amanda Acampora), and UMass coach Elaine Sortino has plenty of extra power stored away on the bench this season.

Freshmen Carly Normandin, Sarah Reeves, and '07 starters Jessica Serio and Whitney Williams will all be heavy contributors to the 2008 Minutewomen, who will be a year older and more experienced.

UMass may not be going anywhere this spring, but the Minutewomen who have been perennial contenders on the national stage are not going anywhere, either. They're staying on that national stage and should climb even higher next season.

Whitney Mollica - 2006's A-10 Rookie and Player of the Year - will likely follow teammate Stacy Cullington's example and shake her sophomore funk as a junior and explode out of the gates once again.

Mollica and Cullington will lead a lineup that will still be plenty powerful from one to nine. With Sortino as coach, leadership should not be a problem. New players step up every year for the softball Hall of Famer.

The biggest loss is the versatility of Molinari, who did so many things in her four years at UMass (and probably could have done more as the team's leadoff hitter). She had amazing speed, could hit the ball and get on base three different ways, and made every pitcher who let her reach first nervous.

Williams may be molded into the same type of player (she tried her hand at slapping this season from the nine-hole), and she may be even more versatile. She is much more powerful, has a cannon for an arm over at shortstop, and possesses similar speed, if not equal to Molinari's.

Long Island and Colgate are not as good as Lehigh, who was a very strong four seed last year. So OU may have been unlucky to not host the regional, but UMass got the shorter end of the stick by getting stuck with OU in the regional round, and getting no help from the three and four seeds in taking down Goliath.

The development of Bailey Sanders will be pivotal to this team, which badly needs someone to take the load off of ace Brandice Balschmiter's shoulders. Sortino smartly threw Sanders into the fire this season, knowing the freshman would need to be ready for action during the postseason (she pitched Sunday against OU).

Last season, Balschmiter ran out of steam against Northwestern in the Super Regionals, and Sanders jumped in this time when Balschmiter didn't have it Sunday.

If Sanders develops into the solid No. 2 to Balschmiter that Sortino hopes she can be. This team will have one heck of a 1-2 punch next season - I don't think I witnessed a single team this year get a hit off Sanders their first time through the lineup after they had already seen Balschmiter that same day.

UMass was already down when Sanders entered the game Sunday, but the 6-foot-2 hurler showed she can get outs against the best teams in the country (she also did well in action early this season in the California and Florida tournaments).

I said UMass would have to go through Oklahoma to move on and they did, but they just didn't have enough to get past the Sooners.

However, the way Sortino is building this current Minutewoman squad, they may have enough to go even farther next year.

Jeremy Rice is the Daily Collegian sports editor and covered UMass softball in 2006 and 2007. He can be reached at jeremyr@student.umass.edu.