The Racer softball team begins its regular season this weekend at home against Southeast Missouri State.
Head Coach Kara Amundson said she believes the team will be ready for its first few conference games after ironing out a few details.
“There have been some puzzle pieces that we’ve been trying to put in place as we went through the preseason tournaments,” she said.
The team has traveled the last four weekends, and play at home for the first time Saturday.
The team is focused on practicing hard this week and worked on the little things needing to be fixed.
Amundson said she is looking for different people to step up in their roles. As individuals, she said she hopes these players can move the team in the right direction this weekend.
“Casey Castile had an awesome weekend for us this past weekend,” Amundson said. “She really stepped into her role as a hitter on this team.”
The team is battling injuries, making it a struggle to play consistently.
Amundson said she believes if the team can pitch and bat successfully, they can move more runners around the bases and have a better end result.
“SEMO is always good,” Amundson said. The team is going to have to compete in order to come out on top of the first three games of conference play. All of the teams in the OVC have the potential to compete well against one another.
The Racers lost three of their four games at the Evansville Invitational last weekend, ending the preseason tournaments.
Murray State got its single win against Bowling Green State. Bowling Green State scored one run in the first inning to take the lead, but the Racers got on the board in the second inning with a two-run home run by sophomore Alexa Becker.
After a few scoreless innings, the Racers added four more runs with a grand slam by Sarah Anderson.
Bowling Green State scored three more runs in the sixth inning, but Murray State held onto its lead with a final score of 6-4.
The Racers kick off their season with a double-header at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturday at Central Park.
Story by Megan Kavy, Staff writer.