Still Grinding: Stitt, Clarion University Softball Team Staying Positive After Slow Start

CLARION, Pa. (EYT/D9) — It’s difficult sometimes for Alyssa Stitt and her Clarion University softball teammates to stay positive.

(Alyssa Stitt makes contact during an at-bat last season/photo courtesy of Clarion University)

It’s hard to keep showing up to the softball field, playing well, being close to victory only to fall painfully short.

It hasn’t been the kind of season Stitt or the Golden Eagles envisioned after the big step forward they made during an abbreviated 2021 campaign.

Not even close.

“It’s very frustrating,” said Stitt, a Clarion sophomore and a Karns City High School graduate. “Our last two opponents, Slippery Rock and IUP, we went extra innings with them and lost. You think you’re going to break through and you play very well and you feel like it’s coming, but it doesn’t.”

Clarion is 1-22 so far this season. Seven of losses have come by two runs or less, five by one run. Clarion has several other losses where it led in the later innings, but had things slip away.

The Golden Eagles are by no means getting dominated, which makes the current 16-game losing streak all the more difficult to deal with.

“This year has been the hardest we’ve ever experienced,” said Clarion head softball coach Lis Fee. “That actually included the COVID year. I don’t really know why, there just seems to be a lot of uncontrollables that are wreaking havoc on our season. And, of course, the weather has been terrible and that hasn’t helped anyone.”

The Clarion program hit rock bottom in 2019, going 0-43. The 2020 campaign was a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, things got a whole light brighter with a 12-22 record in a shortened season.

It looked like the Golden Eagles were on the rise.

Then a 1-22 start to this season.

Then the chirps of the naysayers growing louder once again.

“We do notice people are talking, and it’s not the greatest,” Stitt said. “We use that at motivation to prove them wrong, that we can do this. We’re in games and we need to show we can win and change the program around like I think we can. We play for each other.”

Stitt, like the rest of the team, started the season in a slump.

Last year, she batted .290 in a strong debut season for Clarion.

She has raised her average this season to .224.

Stitt also had to fight for playing time this year.

With a bevy of infielders on the roster, Stitt, a shortstop by trade, saw she was stuck in a numbers game and decided to do something about it.

She approached the coaches and floated an idea: move me to center field.

“She just kind of came up to us and said, ‘I’d like to give the outfield a shot,’” Fee said. “She worked really hard at it, on her reaction time, her first step and strengthening her arm for the throws in. She continues to work hard.

“Right now,” Fee said, “she’s hitting atom bombs, but right at people.”

Like those tough outs that Stitt hopes will eventually find outfield grass, so too does she hope some of those close losses will turn into wins.

The hope that everything evens out in the end.

Stitt has gotten back into a better mindset in the batter’s box and that has helped.

“I noticed I was kind of being aggressive and going after the first pitch and I was miss-hitting the ball,” Stitt said. “So recently I’ve been trying to get deeper in the counts and get more quality at-bats. I can still be aggressive, but my pitch selection has been better.”

Stitt has also paid closer attention to taking care of her body for the long season.

If there is a saving grace to a 1-22 start it is that there’s still a lot of season left to be played. Clarion has only two PSAC-West games under its belt, and there’s plenty of time to salvage the campaign.

It’s also plenty of time for Stitt to wear down, something she is trying to avoid through diet and treatment on her arm and other aches and pains.

“I go to the athletic trainer a lot before games to ice and heat my arm and make sure I’m eating properly,” Stitt said. “A big thing is packing snacks for the bus rides and making sure I’m eating enough before games. Getting enough electrolytes has been a big lifesaver. We get little packets that we can drink, and I didn’t really understand until I saw the difference when I drank them. I was so much more energetic and my body felt way better than it ever has.”

What would make Stitt feel even better is stacking up some wins.

Because of the poor weather, Clarion has been idle since an extra-inning loss to Indiana University of Pennsylvania on April 2. The Golden Eagles won’t play against until Tuesday, April 12.

Maybe not such a bad thing. Maybe a chance to reset.

“I feel like once we get one, it’ll give us a lot of confidence,” Stitt said. “I just feel like once we get that win again, we’ll keep getting them from there. We’re so close and that’s why we’re not giving up and doubting ourselves.”