Following a disappointing weekend on the road, the Syracuse softball team’s NCAA tournament aspirations appear bleak.

The Orange (28-18, 11-9 Big East) couldn’t muster a single win in four contests against DePaul and Notre Dame, the top two teams in the Big East. SU lost 0-4 and 2-5 to the Blue Demons Saturday, and also fell to the Fighting Irish twice Sunday, 0-4 and 3-6, respectively.

After dropping four consecutive games for the first time this season, the Orange is running out of opportunities. Despite what has arguably been the program’s most successful year under third-year head coach Leigh Ross, winning the single-elimination Big East tournament and securing the league’s lone automatic bid appears to be SU’s only avenue of entry into the field of 64.

‘We kind of dug ourselves into a hole,’ Ross said. ‘If we won two of four we might have had a chance at a regional bid without winning the tournament, but I don’t think we will have enough to get us up to that point.’

The eight-team Big East tournament begins on May 7, with the champion being crowned two days later. But before the Orange can fully prep for the conference tournament, the squad will have to deal with Rutgers this Sunday in the team’s final home game of the year. The first game is slated for noon.

Last year, the top four finishers in the Big East qualified for the 64-team NCAA tournament. This year, Syracuse tentatively occupies one of those spots as the squad is in a fourth-place tie in the conference standings with South Florida. Each currently holds a record of 11-9 in Big East play, with USF traveling to Pittsburgh and SU facing Rutgers Sunday. The April 4 meeting between SU and USF was cancelled and never rescheduled.

At-large entries into the NCAA tournament are selected based upon a number of criteria very similar to that of men’s and women’s basketball, including strength of schedule and RPI. As the tournament selection draws nearer, it appears that SU’s numbers won’t stack up as its RPI is likely to fall from No. 58, where the team stood last week.

SU’s frustrating weekend stemmed from what appeared to be an ‘approach to the game, where we were questioning if we were even supposed to win,’ Ross said.

‘Early on in the year our mishaps stemmed from a lack of intensity,’ Ross said. ‘But this weekend we kind of questioned if we were even supposed to have a shot. Against Notre Dame we had a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning, but the players seemed to be out there kind of asking, ‘When are they going to score.”

Syracuse struggled in the batters box against the class of the conference, as SU was shutout in each of the series openers against the Blue Demons and the Fighting Irish. Yet, Syracuse senior Jamie Kelling doesn’t feel as if all was lost over the weekend as SU’s pitchers threw relatively well throughout the tough road stretch.

‘To be honest, this weekend didn’t go in our favor,’ Kelling said, ‘but we realized that we are totally capable of beating teams of that caliber any time. We were in those games.’

If there is a time for those caliber wins to come, May 7 to 9 at the Big East tournament at Ulmer Stadium in Louisville would be an ideal time and place.

But if any dreams are to be realized, Ross feels the team must finally overcome its final mental hurdle.

‘We just can’t question ourselves,’ Ross said. ‘I have had more fun coaching these girls than any other team in my life, and they have put in just too much work for this to hold us back. There is no reason why we should have those jitters any more. And if we don’t, who knows what can happen.’

aolivero@syr.edu

Published on April 27, 2009 at 12:00 pm