Humboldt faces San Marcos on the road
After opening the season against the preseason 13thranked team in the nation, Cal Poly Humboldt will now open the league season against the current 13th-ranked team, Cal State San Marcos. After opening the season against a multitude of tough teams at a tournament in Texas, the Lumberjacks will try to leverage that experience to come away with at least a few road wins in the series against the Cougars.
Although the ‘Jacks sit at 2-6 heading into the series, three of those losses came against teams that are currently ranked in the national Top 25. That doesn’t include Augustana, who was ranked when Humboldt faced them but has since fallen just outside of the Top 25.
“It might not show in the winloss column, but I think Texas was good for us,” said Humboldt coach Shelli Sarchett. “It was a challenge and something we wanted to do right off the bat knowing that we were going into a tough CCAA schedule. To play high-caliber teams like that, it really showed a lot.”
The ‘Jacks will be enduring a baptism by fire in the first month of the season. After the four-game series with San Marcos this weekend, Humboldt will face Chico State on the road next week. Chico also received votes toward the national Top 25, but currently sits just outside the rankings. After that, the Lumberjacks will have their home opener the first weekend in March. The opponent will be Cal State Dominguez Hills, currently the 4th-ranked team in the country. In total, 16 of the team’s first 20 games will come against teams that are either ranked in the Top 25 nationally or have received votes but sit outside the rankings.
“In order for our young ladies to realize what needs to be done in order to play, we have to play these kinds of high-level teams,” said Sarchett. “We’re gonna go through our bumps and bruises throughout the season, but we’re going to continue to grow with every competitor that we see.”
That growth will have to happen quickly for the team to steal road wins against San Marcos this weekend.
“They bring a balanced attack,” Sarchett said of San Marcos. “They’ve got a returning AllAmerican pitcher, they’ve got
all-region hitters. They’re going to come at us from every angle.”
Although the strength of the Cougars shouldn’t be minimized, there were signs of vulnerability in their first few games. San Marcos opened the season 3-2 despite playing an underwhelming series of games. The team only faced one team, Colorado Christian, that had received any
votes toward the Top 25. They lost by mercy-rule to Montana State Billings, a team that has started the year 2-5, in a 14-4 rout. Considering that, it was surprising that the Cougars only dropped two spots in the Top 25.
And while coach Sarchett didn’t want to get too far ahead of herself, she was pleased with Humboldt’s performance in the weekend tournament and was optimistic after the team has had two weeks of practice to make changes ahead of the conference
opener. She emphasized cleaning up the little things, such as avoiding errors in the infield, to making sure the team doesn’t beat themselves moving forward. In general, Sarchett was pleased with how the team responded.
“We broke things down and even started from just basic mechanics,” said Sarchett. “Just focusing on little things in order to make the big things happen.”
The ‘Jacks will try to make big things happen this weekend as they aim to put themselves on the map with an upset over a top-ranked opponent. Sarchett didn’t shy away from the fact the expectation is to win the series, while also noting that if the small improvements are implemented then that would be its own victory.
“Seeing the progress in our hitters making adjustments, our pitchers making adjustments,” said Sarchett. “If we’re seeing that, it’s early enough in the season where we can continue to grow. And hopefully, use that growth for the rest of the season.”