With an 18-9 record, the Hawks’ softball team has had a good season, but Thursday’s makeup game against the San Joaquin Delta Mustangs was one tough outing.

It was sure to be a competitive matchup with the Mustangs coming in to this game with a 25-3 record.

Sophomore starting pitcher Courtney Lozano stepped up to the mound ready to perform, and even though she did, the Hawks’ offense didn’t pull through.

“I feel like we did pretty good, except for our bats were kind of silent,” said Lozano. “I feel like we had our bat skill and I feel like we could have easily scored.”

Even though Lozano gave up a couple hits, she said she came into this game with the mindset that she had to let the Mustangs hit and let her defense help her.

“I feel like that was the biggest thing, was just letting them hit and letting my players work behind me,” said Lozano. “I feel like that was my biggest thing, just getting over the mental mindset that they were a really good team.”

Coach Kristy Schroeder backed her pitcher by saying her team just didn’t hit the ball, had a few too many strikeouts and just couldn’t get the ball in play.

“It was a tough one but I thought Courtney kept us in the game and did a good job out there,” Schroeder said. “I wanted to give Ashlee a couple innings going into the end there, but if you don’t score runs you can’t win a ballgame.”

Sophomore first baseman Ashlee Kaiser said her pitcher wasn’t performing bad and that she was getting her defense the ground balls they needed but with errors and the lack of hitting there wasn’t much else they could do.

“I just think we didn’t come out to play,” Kaiser said. “We had no energy, no fire, no fight to win the game. It was just like we got down and then we stayed there.”

With only one hit and three errors, the Hawks fell to the Mustangs 8-0.