UW Oshkosh softball had a busy weekend, playing a double header on both Saturday and Sunday. The Titans defeated UW-Stevens Point in both games on April 21, which took place in Madison, but then fell to UW-Whitewater in both games on Sunday, April, 22.

UWO beat UW-Stevens Point with a lead of at least five runs each game and scores of 7-2 and 8-2. Sophomore shortstop Natalie Dudek said she felt the team working together on Saturday and believes those games were a good example of the success the team can have.

“The wins weren’t just one person doing the job, everyone played a role in both games,” Dudek said. “The final scores show that everyone contributed and it’s a good example of us all playing together. The biggest thing was just making [MATC] our home field. We just had to get comfortable and we were excited to play.”

The games against UW-Stevens Point were scheduled to be played in Oshkosh but were ultimately played at Madison Area Technical College due to the field in Oshkosh not being ready. The softball team had no problem playing in Madison making the best of the situation. Sophomore pitcher Claire Petrus said she knows the team can play well anywhere they are.

“We were just as motivated [to play]. The games before we played in the dome at Marquette, we played in Arizona and Florida,” Petrus said. “We weren’t really home there so going into our first game [at MATC] we just took advantage of their nice complex and really did well.”

Junior first baseman Kaitlyn Krol said the team wasn’t concerned about where they were playing, just that they wanted to play.

“Everyone was so excited to play, no one was worried about where we were playing at that point,” Krol said. “We just wanted to get out and play some softball.”

Oppositely, UWO lost both games to UW-Whitewater on Sunday, April, 22. The Warhawks beat the Titans by only one run in each game, with final scores of 1-0 and 5-4. These games were the first of many conference season games to be played for UWO softball. The softball conference season started later than usual due to weather conditions, but the team has utilized their time in practice to get the results that they want. Krol said she knows the rest of the season’s games will be against tough competition.

“We know that we have a long couple weeks ahead of us, but that has us focused and ready to go,” Krol said. “We know that we don’t have a lot of room for errors. We just want to get on a high note and stick with it.”

The softball team hosted its first home game in Oshkosh on Wednesday, April 25, when it welcomed UW-River Falls. The softball team lost the first game in this double header 8-4 and turned around to beat UW-River Falls with a score of 10-2 in 6 innings.

UWO softball looks forward to hosting UW-Stout on Friday, traveling to UW-Platteville on Saturday and to UW-Eau Claire this Sunday. UWO softball is happy to be playing games and getting the season rolling.

“We are excited to play in Oshkosh, just having that home feeling and home fans here,” Dudek said.