Attempting to persevere in scorching 80-degree weather at Cupertino High School, MVHS Softball fell 25-3 to CHS on Friday, May 9. The Matadors kept a shorter gap during the first inning, ending with a score of 8-3. However, the team was unable to score during the second and due to missed potential flyouts while CHS scored 10 and 7 runs batted in, respectively.
Senior and centerfield Erin Handelsman scored two of the Matador’s runs batted in. She says the team expected a loss going into the game, noting CHS’s current 12-8 record compared to the Matador’s 10-0. While leading a smaller and newer team after most of the team graduated last year, Handelsman emphasizes supporting the incoming class of players and keeping morale up.
“Each game serves as a lesson,” Handelsman said. “We know we’re not going to win each game. We can try to at least improve on minor skills, and eventually that will lead to major impacts. It’s not really a big bummer if we lose because we know this is a new team.”
In addition to facing a more experienced team, rightfield and sophomore Srikrithi Duggireddy attributes Friday’s hot weather peaking at 82 degrees at the start of the game as one of two contributing factors to the Matador’s loss. She says some players, including herself, were sluggish and missing easy balls as it was so hot she felt like she would faint. Duggireddy also believes their weak defense impacted their loss, specifically the outfielders’ inability to watch out for incoming balls when CHS batted.
“People in the outfield aren’t always alert, but they need to be looking at the center and at where the pitcher is at all times,” Duggireddy said. “Overall, the team needs to always be alert, and a lot of times, I saw that a lot of people, including myself, often got distracted, and then, we couldn’t hold up.”
Despite the loss, Duggireddy mentions the team’s batting performance displayed improvement from previous matches, as they didn’t strike out as quickly and had 19 plate appearances — a slight increase compared to their season average of 17.4. When facing upcoming matches, specifically Monday’s rematch against CHS, Duggireddy says the most consequential element to changing the outcome is their mentality.
“In order to succeed as a team, more of us need to want to win and want to do better,” Duggireddy said. “It’s not just, ‘Oh, I go to softball for the sake of going to softball,’ but thinking ‘I go to softball because I want to be a better player and bond more with my team members.’ Having more of a growth mindset is important because going into games, we have a fixed mindset that says we’re always going to lose. If we approach each game with a better mindset, I think that we can start getting better.”
