Nashua Telegraph: Rivier Softball team slowly hitting its stride

BY Tom King, Staff Writer (Nashua Telegraph)

For Complete Article, click here: "Rivier University Softball team slowly hitting its stride"

NASHUA – It's been a slow start to the spring, for certain, and while high school teams are just starting out, the local college teams have about three weeks left in what has been a wacky season.

And Rivier University Dave Morissette is just trying to smile through it.

On one hand, he's optimistic on how his young team, without a single senior and just six juniors, is playing, despite an overall 11-14 mark (going into Tuesday's twinbill with Daniel Webster College) and a 4-11 record in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference.

On the other, he's frustrated about the unpredictable schedule and the fact his team hasn't been able to get into a rhythm.

"I'm very optimistic about how we're playing," Morissette said. "We played the top five teams in the conference to start out, and we lost three games by three runs or less (one run to Suffolk, three run losses to Simmons and Emmanuel)."

Morissette just wishes his team, after a 5-3 trip to Myrtle Beach, S.C. to start the season, had been able to get into a regular routine once it returned to the frozen tundra of New Hampshire.

"We're doing pretty well when you consider all the unstable weather, without practicing outside," Morissette said. "The kids don't know what the deal is one day to the next. "They're all young. It's hard to get into a comfort zone without a lot of veterans there."

The Raiders have been able to get games in on the school's rectangular turf field, used mainly for lacrosse but which can be used for softball as well. Right above it is their own softball field, which until the end of last week was laden with remnants of ice and snow from the horrendous winter, as most fields have been until just recently.

"You can keep playing on turf to get the games in," Morissette said late last week, "but that's not what we want. But that's what we've been doing everywhere, playing on turf fields. Everyone is. We have yet to play on a dirt field."

But now the fields are cleared, and Morissette has a host of locals, including Merrimack's Jess Shanahan, who has two pitching wins and a 3.61 earned run average, former Nashua South player Shaylyn Freitas, who was hitting .293 with a team high 21 RBIs at last look, Nashua North alum/freshman Hailey Reed, sophomore Jess Cote (South), and Hollis Brookline's Lia Bobek (.419 in 43 at-bats), a junior. Norwalk, Conn., freshman Tori Dugan has been good as well, hitting at a team high .368 clip.

"We've had a lot of the young players playing well for us," Morissette said. "Freitas has been really good, Bobek has been hitting .400.

"We're playing well. It's been one of those, a hit here and then maybe if a foul ball that missed by inches had been fair, we'd have a couple of runs and we win the game. That's the way it's been. We've been snakebitten."

So what has Morissette been unhappy about? His team needs to adapt better to the unpredictable situation.

"I'm a little discouraged, it's just being prepared for the spring season," he said. "Players from baseball and softball, they don't know where or when they'll be playing day to day, when or where they're practicing day to day.

"Sure, there's other things, we can get more timely hitting and tighten up our defense."

But, says Morissette, as conditions get better his team should get better as well.

"In my 20 years of coaching, I've never seen anything like this," he said.