Friday, May 7, 2004 | 9:26 a.m.
Three-fourths of the way through the regular season, things were looking up for the UNLV softball team.
Sitting at 22-23 and in first place in Mountain West Conference standings, the team -- under first-year coach Lonni Alameda -- was having its best season in recent memory.
Then the wheels fell off, as the team suffered through a 10-game skid in MWC play that ended Thursday when the Rebels defeated Brigham Young in the first game of a doubleheader. UNLV lost the second game.
Ace pitcher Jacque Kerrigan was hurting, the Rebel offense was struggling and things were just overall going wrong.
UNLV is in the middle of the pack in batting average at .262, but ranks at the bottom in slugging percentage and runs scored. The team also has only eight home runs this year.
But there has been one bright spot. Senior Bridget Byrne is third in the Mountain West in batting average, hitting .386, and leads the league with 68 hits. Without Byrne's contributions, the Rebels would be hitting .232.
Kerrigan, the conference's fourth-best pitcher, struggled through much of April with back spasms, eventually sitting out games toward the end of the month. But last weekend, Kerrigan returned for limited action, and allowed two runs in five innings of Thursday's win.
She said last weekend that she was still feeling pain, but is trying to work back into shape in time for the Mountain West tournament, which is next weekend in Fort Collins, Colo.
Kerrigan said for this season, she's going to have to brave through the pain.
But even with struggles and injuries, Alameda and her Rebels remain optimistic.
"It's been awesome," Alameda said of her first season as a head coach. "The support of the community has been awesome, seeing people around, the kids are awesome to work with. What coach wouldn't be excited?"
Kerrigan said that the difference between this year and last year -- the final year of the 17-year tenure of coach Shan McDonald -- is the attitude that the team can win games.
"Everyone's enjoying themselves a lot, having fun playing to their potential," she said.
With the conference tournament looming, Alameda said the team believes it can surprise some opponents in Fort Collins.
"Anything can happen, but we have to play our tails off," she said. "We're very excited about the opportunity and challenge, and it's starting to come together."
Kerrigan agreed that the Rebels can make some noise next week.
"I think we have a run in us for conference, we can get key hits at key times, keep working hard, and don't get down about things," she said.
archive
