Photo from cruathletics.com
For about half of head coach Melissa Mojica’s team, the weekend’s upcoming series at fourth-ranked East Texas Baptist stands out on the schedule in a notable way. After all, UMHB and ETBU have battled atop the American Southwest Conference for a number of seasons now. That includes—and was highlighted by—The Cru’s regular season sweep of the Tigers a year ago and ETBU’s walk-off win in the ASC Tournament title game five weeks after that.
It has more or less become a rivalry, and for the returners for last year’s team especially, it is approached as such.
But there are plenty of new faces in key roles for the UMHB softball program in 2024. Newcomers who haven’t yet experienced the intensity seen in past matchups between these two conference rivals.
“We have half of the team who has never faced ETBU, and there’s not a lot of worry in them,” Mojica said Thursday. “And then my older kids are pretty hyped up and talking about, ‘Okay, this is a big series. This is it.’ I hoping that [dynamic] will balance it all out.”
The pitching duo in particular, composed of Eileigh Whyte and Chloee Mason, falls into the newcomer category, as both transferred into UMHB after two years in the junior college ranks. In a way, that might be a positive for The Cru, especially in the circle.
“They all know it’s a big weekend,” Mojica added. “Our pitchers don’t know much about these hitters. We watched film, but they haven’t put [ETBU] on a pedestal, which I think is a good thing. They are just going to go in and throw their best pitches and compete.”
Despite a 2-4 start to conference play, everything is still in front of this team, who capped last weekend’s series win over Howard Payne with a dramatic walk-off home run from Bailey Frenzel. 18 league games are still ahead, as the Crusaders are 8-8 overall.
“I think overall, in the past week, with the Trinity and Howard Payne series, I’ve felt that we’re moving in the right direction,” Mojica said. “We had a great week of practice. A lot of hard work and positive attitudes. We focused on being competitive and playing good softball. Because if we play to our potential, we’re going to win a lot of games. That was the difference with earlier in the year. We were so inconsistent from inning-to-inning.
If there is one trademark of this squad, they are undoubtedly battle-tested. So much so, that facing the fourth-ranked team in the country is not even the highest-ranked opponent UMHB has gone toe-to-toe with within the past month; on March 2, The Cru played No. 1-ranked Trine, the defending national champions.
That matchup came as part of the NFCA Leadoff Classic in Columbus, Georgia, as UMHB battled 13th-ranked Case Western Reserve, Trine, Saint Benedict, Piedmont, 23rd-ranked Concordia (Wis) all in the span of three days.
“The Georgia tournament was tough,” Mojica noted, looking back. “I thought it was a little more successful than what the scores reflected. For the younger kids, I think it set them back a little bit where they were like, ‘Wow, this is hard,’ but for the older ones, it was, ‘This is the best that it gets. If we can beat some of these teams, we can beat anybody.’ That’s the mentality we have to have.”
ETBU enters the weekend as the only team in the ASC hitting above .400 as a team, at .403, and leads the league in RBIs (119), slugging percentage (.577), and on-base percentage (.477). Tasked with stopping the potent Tiger lineup is Whyte, who, as of late, has taken strides in her first season in Belton. With a 2.71 ERA in 13 appearances in the circle, she has allowed just three runs over her last five outings and struck out 14 batters in that span.
“She’s a competitor,” Mojica said of Whyte. “Everything she does, she gets excited about. She’s very easy to coach, and doesn’t question anything. She does what we ask her to do. Our team has really rallied around her and she has taken control of that circle for the most part.”
UMHB’s lineup has been productive as well, with key contributions from both Frenzel and Taylor Henken, amongst others. Frenzel’s walk-off homer in last Saturday’s 5-2 win was her first of the season, and as of late, the former NJCAA All-American has found a rhythm at the plate. She is 10-for-16 in UMHB’s last five contests.
“Last week was a big week for her,” Mojica noted. “I think she’s finally hit her stride and we’ll see a better Bailey this week and in the weeks to come. She was incredible in the fall, and she started a little bit slower this season, which I hate to say, because she’s hitting so well, but there’s a lot more to Bailey than what we’ve seen. I think some things finally clicked last week.”
Henken is third on the team in batting average, at .348, but more importantly, has stepped into UMHB’s leadoff position in the lineup. With her speed and ability to make contact, Henken is the perfect leadoff hitter. Having that sort of spark at the top of the lineup is invaluable to a team’s offensive success.
“Once she gets on base in that first inning, we usually score,” Mojica said of Henken. “It’s over 75 percent of the time that she leads off, gets on [base], she steals or we bunt her over, and we have two outs to hit her in with Bailey, Bryton Wright, or Bralyn Belk coming up. So, Taylor has been huge offensively. And again, she’s just a competitor. She’s not okay with losing. She’s not okay with making the same mistakes. That’s what it takes.”
Needless to say, UMHB’s bats will need to come out firing this weekend in Marshall. Expect Frenzel and Henken to be part of that. ETBU has a 1.04 ERA in league play and surrendered just 13 hits through its first five conference games. The Tigers have been beaten once this season, by Trinity, a team UMHB swept in a doubleheader just 10 days ago.
“They’re having a great season,” Mojica siad of ETBU. “But they have been beaten. They’ve played a couple close games. People have scored on them. If we put together a good, competitive weekend, we have a chance to win some games.”
The series opens on Friday afternoon with a 4 p.m. doubleheader and is followed by the series finale on Saturday at noon. Watch the action from Marshall live at goetbutigers.com.
