| Senior ballers Paige Pinedo, Whitney Williams and Erika Potts go over strategy in an earlier game against Union. The girls are part of the seven seniors players who made up this season’s veteran squad. |
For all their hard work, the Carbon softball season saw their season come to an end this weekend with two losses in the first round of the state tournament. Cedar out scored the Dinos 8-1 and then the Dinos found themselves going home for the season after a 12-2 loss to Union.
Coach Pinedo summed up the final two games as both a lack of offense and more importantly a lack of defense. In the 8-1 loss to Cedar, only two of those runs were earned. The rest came on errors and lost opportunities to get the outs when they needed them.
Tammy Harwood came through with the only offense in game one with an RBI hit.
In the game against Union, the Dinos were actually leading 2-0 for several innings. Again the defense let down and Pinedo felt like a couple of really bad calls led to the game getting out of control.
Pinedo stressed that he knows the questionable calls did not cost the Dinos the game, but it did allow Union to continue their inning and close out the game with the 10 run rule, ending any Dino chances of comeback.
Whitney Williams finished up her Dino career with one final blast over the fence. Freshman Kenzie Cave came into the game as the designated hitter and had two hits in the game. For the Dinos it also didn’t help that they were missing their shortstop due to family issues and had to try and figure out how to fill that gap in their line-up.
“It was disappointing talking to the girls after the final loss. But I especially want to say just how much I appreciate of all our senior this season. They gave it their all and stuck through from their freshmen years til now.”
Summing up the season, Pinedo felt it was one where the team just never got consistent. “One day we played like we could beat everyone, and the next…..”
With his daughter Paige finishing up her senior year, Pinedo is not sure if he is coming back or not to coach next season. “I haven’t made up my mind yet. Deciding now, I’m afraid I would act more on emotion and so I give myself a month and play some golf and then make a decision.”
But no matter, He does feel like there is some great talent coming up from below. The team losses seven seniors this season and so many new faces will get a chance to take the field next season.
Who shines and who doesn’t may depend on the hard wotk the girls are willing to put in during the off season. Pinedo would also like to see the Carbon girls get involved in playing some Accelerated softball like they do upstate. He feels like this would help the team get on par with teams across the state and move them to the next level.
But for now the team goes their separate ways and says good bye to another season of Carbon softball.