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BY LEXI SHULL
WEB EDITOR
Clackamas Community College’ s softball team had a rough weekend that
started with two losses in a double header against Edmonds Community
College on April 17 and ended with a 5-4 loss to North Idaho College.
The Cougars are 1^-5 in their last six games and have an overall record of
17-17. Despite having difficulties winning last week the Cougars jumped
up to eleventh in the ranking percentage index edging Wenatchee Valley
by 0.000008 points. The top 16 ieams in the RPI makethe NWAC playoffs.
Head Coach Jessica Buel feels her squad is starting to get the hang of
playing with each other and getting ready to make big strides in the second
home run of the season.
Clackamas Print
“ We’ re still figuring ourselves out a little bit. We’ve had some great
games, we have a ton of talent, so I think if we can put it together this last
half then we’re gonna have a great year,” said Buel. “We’ve had some great
hitters from Kat Hylton and Natalie Munson giving us the home runs to
our one two hitters are leading us off well. [We’ve been] pretty consistent
throughout the whole lineup.”
Sophomore catcher Natalie Munson mentioned that the team has also
been doing some reading to get focused and to better understand what it
actually means to be a mindful player.
“ We’ve been reading this book called Mind Gym to try and help us focus
on the mental side of the game because it’s mostly mental and not just
physical.” Munson said.
Buel said she has typically assigns reading for her team, so they can
improve their mindset to be prepared for college level competition.
“ The girls are taking turns reading chapters and then they’re coming
back and telling their team what they found important, so we can get their
mindset right as they go into games.”
Team chemistry has been a major part of theGougars success according
to Munson.
, “ [The team chemistry] is really good,” Munson said. “ We all love each
other and we have fun outside of practice as well.”
Freshman right fielder Kat Hylton also spoke on the subject of team
comradery saying, “ I think our chemistry is really great it’s just whether
we put it all out on the field at the same time like one of us is gonna have
an off day it’s bound to happen but we’re all there for each othet we’ve got
each other’ s backs on and off the field.”
One piece of this team that really sets them apart from most other teams
in their league is their variety of pitchers. It’ s Comrqon for softball teams
to have one main pitcher, but the Cougars have thyee and use all three
of them throughout their games. Buel saidy “ We think that’ s one of our
strengths. We love that we can put.anyone out there and kind of do it as a
group instead of putting all the pressure on one kid.”
Munson agreed: “ I feel like it kind of helps having a lot of pitchers because
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