USAO Shorthanded but Ready for Regional

CHICKASHA – It’s basically a fact of life. Teams face adversity every season. The kinds of adversity a team will face can include losing heartbreaking games in the final innings and losing players to injuries. The Drovers have seen both.

On the eve of Thursday and Friday’s NAIA Region VI Tournament in Farmer’s Branch, Texas, the ninth-ranked University of Science and Arts’ softball team is at peace with the obstacles it has seen. And the team is ready to play its way into the school’s third straight national tournament.

“I definitely think we are about to peak at the right time,” said first year head coach Taralee Pringle. “We’ve had kind of an up and down year, but I think we are about to pull it all together.”

Ranked No. 8 in the preseason poll, USAO has posted a 7-9 record against ranked teams. Five of those nine losses have been at the hands of No. 5 St. Gregory’s, which benefited from two unearned runs in the bottom of the seventh in Saturday’s conference semifinal game. SGU went on to beat USAO 5-4 in extra innings and claim the title.

A rash of injuries hasn’t kept the Drovers from posting a 40-16 record. But the team only has nine active players left from the beginning of the season. Four starters have missed time due to injury including a season-ending knee injury to Morgan Skelley and her team-leading .345 batting average.

Catcher Hope Foley is back behind the plate after missing time with a broken bone in her hand. And second baseman Nikki Aguilar is back hitting home runs after a broken thumb kept her out of the lineup midseason.

Starting pitcher and First Team All-SAC selection Kindra Gregory has battled a knee injury for most of the season, and she could be called upon to carry the team through the final two weeks of the year with the loss of two-time All-American Dana Askins.

“I don’t really think that there is any way that it couldn’t have affected them,” Pringle said about the adversity the Drovers have faced. “I’m definitely proud of the girls.

“When you lose someone to injury or something else, the team can choose to step up to the challenge and pull together to overcome it, or they can choose to have it negatively affect them,” she said. “Every time that we’ve had a situation like that come up, they stepped up to the plate and decided to take the challenge.”

Pringle said she feels confident that the challenges her team has faced has prepared them for the two grueling weeks ahead.

The Drovers begin the regional tournament at 10 a.m. Thursday against Southern Nazarene. A complete bracket and final scores can be found at http://www.usao.edu/softball.

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 Take I-35E S toward DALLAS. (26.4 miles)

Take EXIT 441 toward VALLEY VIEW LANE. (0.1 miles)

Stay STRAIGHT to go onto HARRY HINES BLVD / N STEMMONS FWY / S I-35E (0.1 miles)

Turn LEFT onto VALLEY VIEW LANE. (0.5 miles)

Turn LEFT onto DENNIS LN. (0.1 miles)

End at 13300 Dennis Ln

Farmers Branch, TX 75234-4804