After coming off an impressive win streak, the University of Tampa softball team has their eyes and focus on finishing up the season on a strong note. The Spartan team has only conference games left which are against bottom-dwelling Nova Southern and Lynn. Just one game behind in the loss column, Coach Kanter, Catcher Taylor Storey and Shortstop Kayleen Boatwright are looking to have a positive end of the season.
“Well we are kind of in a must win situation because we are going to have to win our next nine games to have a shot at winning conference,” said Kanter. “The girls realize it, I realize it, so we are practicing hard, we are working hard and hopefully we will come through with some wins.”
Not only is Coach Kanter having the team work hard during practice, the players are also focusing on playing hard and trying to fine-tune the little things.
“We take what we have done wrong in games and in practice we focus on that area that we are having trouble with,” said Storey. “We just really work on fixing it, until we get it to where it needs to be to keep winning.”
The conference teams that are the Spartans will be playing in the upcoming weeks have losing records, but the team is not taking that knowledge for granted.
“I don’t think we are going to be taking anything for granted and we are going to be playing just as hard as if we were playing against Barry or Rollins,” said Boatwright.
“We are going into these games like it is going to be a tough game,” Storey said. “We are not slacking off in practice, we are not slacking off in the games we are still going hard to put as many runs on the board as we can.”
Even with their record only a few games shy of first place, the Spartan team still has a chance of pulling through and getting that first place title.
“Absolutely; I think we can win and I think we just have to come together as a team and play as a team,” said Boatwright. “We just need to play hard and we can definitely get to where we need to be.”
Coach Kanter also thinks the team has the potential to win the conference, but with teams like Barry and Rollins, it won’t be easy.
“It is a long shot because we have to win all of our games and Barry would have to lose a couple and I’m not sure if that is going to happen,” said Kanter. “It’s going to be tough but I believe we will definitely end within the top couple teams, but at the moment I cannot tell if we will be able to pull from behind and win first place.”
Knowing these next few games are critical, the team and the players are focusing on their goals for the rest of the season coming up.
“As a team we will be working on working together and just finishing strong through the rest of the season and winning the rest of the way out to help us get higher in our conference,” said Boatwright. “Individually I would say that everyone knows what they specifically need to work on, so just working hard on those goals to get better, and to better the team as a whole.”
The Spartan team next plays April 19 when they host Nova Southeastern.