The Syracuse softball team has been breaking records all season, but the most prolific offensive team in SU history still has a few things it wants to take care of.

‘I think all of the girls are really excited,’ sophomore pitcher Erin Downey said. ‘We want to make something big happen for this university. We want to keep setting records.’

The Orange is in a position no other team in school history has ever faced. One year removed from the program’s first and only postseason win to date, SU could earn its first Women’s College World Series berth ever as an at-large bid, without having to win the Big East tournament.

SU kicks-off play in the Big East tournament today as the fourth seed, taking on fifth-seeded DePaul at 10 a.m. at the Belleville Softball Complex in South Bend, Ind.

‘We’re in a good spot with who we play, but we’re not taking anyone lightly,’ senior Alexis Switenko said. ‘They’re a good team, they have World Series experience. It’s a big game; we have to come out fighting like we have all year.’

It is the first time SU (36-20, 15-7 Big East) has advanced to the Big East tournament in consecutive seasons. Last year, the Orange lost its first round game of the double-elimination tournament, but defeated Villanova, 5-1, for the school’s first-ever and only postseason victory. SU would fall to the eventual champion Notre Dame.

Currently, SU is on the bubble. With an RPI of 43, fourth in the Big East behind regular-season champion Louisville, Notre Dame and South Florida, the Orange could still use a good showing at the conference tournament to solidify its bid for the final field of 64. Selection is Sunday.

‘It’s important for a program like ours because we don’t have the history like a lot of other teams that get in because of the name or the benefit of the doubt,’ SU head coach Mary Jo Firnbach said. ‘We don’t have that going for us.’

The fifth-seeded Blue Demons stand in SU’s way first and if victorious, the Orange probably would face top-seed Louisville, a team which no-hit SU three weeks ago.

But first things first: a date with DePaul, a team which may have turned around SU’s season in early April.

One day after beating Notre Dame for the first time in four years, the Orange swept then-No. 25 DePaul at SU Softball Stadium. SU won the first game in dramatic fashion, 5-4, on a play at the plate. After an Alexis Switenko wild pitch, catcher Kim Weinstein raced to the backstop, relayed the ball to Switenko, who applied the tag on Sara Bandauski to record the final out of the game.

Using the momentum from the first game, the Orange crushed the Blue Demons in game two, 8-1.

‘We knew the potential was there,’ Firnbach said after the DePaul sweep. ‘But honestly we just didn’t know what was going to happen.’

The two victories against DePaul started a seven-game winning streak for the Orange in April. Firnbach can look back at the first game against the Blue Demons to predict what may happen today in the first round of the Big East tournament.

Both Erin Downey and Switenko pitched in the thrilling victory; in fact, it was Switenko’s first save of her career. Firnbach may turn to her two-headed pitching monster in the same game more often come postseason play.

The format of this year’s tournament has changed. With the addition of three teams to the conference, the Big East scrapped the old four-team, double elimination system in favor of a bigger tournament. Eight teams comprise this year’s field and it is now lose once and go home. Knowing she does not have to save one of her pitchers for a consolation game, Firnbach will approach the postseason with a different strategy.

‘It’s a completely different outlook,’ Firnbach said. ‘We’ll probably make decisions a little differently than we have throughout the season. We won’t wait too long and push things to the limit. We might all of a sudden make a quick change and hope it works out.’

Downey, who has had a week and a half to rest to heal her nagging finger and back injuries, says both she and Switenko are ready at a moment’s notice to come into a game and pitch.

‘It’s going to be very nice just playing one game a day,’ freshman Heather Kim said. ‘We can use both of them in a game and we don’t have to worry about another game.’

With such a young team, the Orange sees the postseason as a chance to finally get SU’s name recognized as an annual contender in the softball world. More importantly, Downey wants to establish a habit of success at Syracuse.

‘We want to come up with a tradition for the softball team, being so young,’ Downey said. ‘We want to be like a lacrosse team or a basketball team. I think this year’s a good year to establish that.’

Much of the Orange’s California contingent has booked flights home from Syracuse after the Big East tournament, but they are more than willing to change flight plans. Kim, a Boulder, Co., native, while ‘cautiously optimistic’ in her own words, isn’t ready to go home yet. She and the rest of the Orange will know by Sunday whether the journey will continue.

‘I didn’t book a flight,’ Kim said. ‘I thought about booking a flight just so I could have to change it.’

Published on May 10, 2006 at 12:00 pm