In the vast landscape of college athletics, there are many sports where teams and individuals simply do not get the recognition they deserve for their success. For many schools, football and basketball reign supreme as the more popular sports while the popularity of sports such as golf and softball fall by the wayside. However, a team’s popularity or recognition usually does not guarantee success in any sport.
For the University of Tampa softball team, they have quietly become one of UT’s best athletic programs by being extremely motivated to succeed and establishing an undeniably strong sense of team chemistry.
Although the season is still young, the Spartans have quickly established themselves as one of the best teams in the country. Currently the team sits No. 8 in the national rankings, and they were also voted as the favorites to win the Sunshine State Conference.
“Going into the season we all had one goal in mind, and that is to make it to nationals,” senior Stacy Piagno commented.
“We know that we have a team that could be successful and we put everything out there and leave it out on the field,” Sophomore Taylor Storey further described.
The main aspect of the team’s game that has made the team so successful thus far is pitching, particularly the pitching of Junior Kayla Cox. Cox has astonishingly started six games (all complete games) and has an ERA (earned run average) of zero.
“Not many teams have pitchers that strike out an average of 12 to 14 girls a game,” Storey explained. “While we do have a strong defense it does make it easy when the pitchers are striking everyone out.”
Recently, the team just competed in the Saint Leo Invitational whereby the Spartans won each game by a significant amount, while also allowing zero runs throughout the entire invitational. While things may be going smoothly for the team, there are potential issues that they must address in order to be playing in nationals. For one, they need to establish a legitimate number two pitcher in the rotation behind Kayla Cox. Furthermore, they cannot falter once they enter conference play.
“Conference play is always a bit more intense because we are fighting for more,” Piagno said of the team’s SSC challenges ahead. “Because we are in a very good conference, we will need to step up our play; however, we should be playing to the best of our ability no matter who we play.”
Overall, it is common for many UT athletic teams to struggle in the SSC conference because of the intense competition and the familiarity that each school has with the other teams in the conference. However, what makes this softball team different (and more competitive), is the degree to which they have established team chemistry.
“What makes us such a success this year is that we are a true team and family,” Piagno described. “By just having a good time together, we are meshing and performing as one on the field.”
The team has a great shot of making it to nationals if they can continue their dominance over the competition and continue to work together to achieve their goals.
The softball team’s next game is this Friday, Feb. 22 at 11:15 a.m. at Saint Leo University. The game marks the first game of the Saint Leo Challenge and the Spartans will take on Columbus State at 6 p.m.
J.P. Haney can be reached at johnpatrick.haney@spartans.ut.edu.