Softball started off round two of District 10-5A play with a 10-6  loss to the Emerson Mavericks Tuesday night. 

“[The game] was frustrating. We had opportunities to score and just did not,” head coach Baylea Higgs said. “We left 10 runners on base, which is unacceptable. In a game, you can’t afford to do that and win the game.”

Through Tuesday’s loss Higgs hopes to see the girls change their mindset and not get caught up in what’s already happened.

“I think we’re in a position now where we just have to decide what we want for the remainder of the season. And we’re either going to have to step up and do it, or choose not to,” Higgs said. “I hope we shift our mindset to having some confidence and knowing we can win and not dwelling on what happened in the past.”

Situational hitting, being able to hit and score when runners are on base, has been a continuing struggle for the Redhawks, according to Higgs.

“I hope that we learned from that game that just timely hitting is so important. That’s the thing we’re struggling with this year,” she said. “We’re just not stringing the hits together.”

Junior Delila Bond agrees with Higgs on situational hitting, hoping the team will progress for the rest of the season and place more bats down.

“I think we did a lot better getting on base compared to most of our other games. We just need to hit more connector hits,” Bond said.

Bond also believes that having a more positive attitude and outlook on the game could push the team to success.

“We need to make sure that we’re staying positive,” Bond said. “Even if we think negative things personally, we need to say positive things.”

The Redhawks play again this week, facing the Heritage Coyotes on Thursday, and Bond hopes the team can play a better mental game into the rest of round two.

“I think we need to just keep our heads up, just knowing that all the teams are equal competition,” Bond said. “We just need to not beat ourselves up and just keep our heads straight.”