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Of the nearly 300 Division I softball teams in the country, Syracuse is batting in the bottom 100.

Against Atlantic Coast Conference bottom-dweller Boston College, Syracuse’s .243 batting average dropped to .239. Prior to this weekend’s slate, SU’s batting average ranked 210th in the nation and was tied with Central Connecticut State. Syracuse scored just 13 runs in four games against the Eagles, and the Orange are in the bottom 20% of D-I programs in on-base percentage. They’re middle of the pack in slugging percentage, too.

Though Syracuse just ended a nine-game winning streak and sits sixth in the ACC, the Orange’s (15-11, 8-8 ACC) batting average is 11th in the conference, and they have an ACC-worst .307 OBP.

Head coach Shannon Doepking attributes the struggles to a lack of preparedness. But with only conference games remaining this season — including three sets against ranked opponents in No. 9 Florida State, No. 15 Virginia Tech and No. 18 Clemson — the offense could prove to be a detriment heading into the final stretch of the season.

“We’ve been up and we’ve been down. Just because we’ve had a couple good games doesn’t mean we’ve arrived yet,” Doepking said when asked about the team’s preparedness for ACC play.

College softball, especially at a place like Syracuse, is a “grind,” Doepking said. The Orange spend over a month on the road to begin each season to avoid the snowy weather and cold temperatures that are typical in February and March in central New York. Their 2020 season was canceled the week before their first home game, so they went 702 days without a game at Skytop Stadium.

The lack of offensive success is due to the reality of starting each year on the road, combined with this year’s Zoom practices, training away from Skytop Stadium and limited face-to-face coaching, Doepking said. SU paused athletics’ activities in November due to rising COVID-19 cases on campus, too.

“I think a lot of it is we are asking these kids to play a 50-game season with a month and two weeks of practice, and then in between, we had two months off to go home and sit and do nothing,” Doepking said.

Aside from last year’s season, which was cut short at 20 games due to the pandemic, the team’s batting average is at its lowest clip since 2013, where it finished six games below .500 and slashed a combined .226/.328/.398. That includes a 2019 team that finished 8-16 in conference play and a 2015 team that ended 4-13 in ACC play. Even with a lower batting average in 2020, the team scored 96 total runs, while this year’s squad scored 74 in the same span.

The Orange have hit a combined .200 or less in nine games this year, going 3-6 in those. Those games include a two-hit 1-0 win against UMass and four hits in a 3-2 win over Notre Dame. The Orange average four runs per game, and they’ve scored the third-fewest runs in the ACC, but they average a half-run victory through 26 games.

In the middle of its struggles, Syracuse’s offense has had hot flashes, too. SU’s season-high in runs scored is nine — the team has reached that peak twice, but those games were against Buffalo and Pitt. The Bulls have a combined 5.59 team ERA, and the Panthers have a 5.14 combined ERA. The Orange won after six innings against Buffalo for their first mercy-rule win since March 2019.

“I think it’s great confidence for these kids to come out and do what they did today, to swing it a little bit,” Doepking said after defeating Buffalo.

Despite early season power surges from Toni Martin and Gabby Teran, no one on the team has more than five home runs. The lack of power continues a trend that has lasted nearly a decade. Just two players — Jasmine Watson and Corinne Ozanne — have finished with double-digit home runs since 2013.

The coaching staff has been preaching to “do the little things” when it comes to hitting. They say the team needs to spray the ball pole to pole, something Doepking said freshman Angel Jasso did well in the sweep of Buffalo. Jasso’s three hits against the Bulls included a home run to right, a single to center and a ground ball single to the shortstop. Doepking also said the Orange need to stop swinging at balls outside the strike zone.

It’s those little things that cause the Orange to have the third-fewest runs and second-fewest hits in the conference. Fixing those little things will also help SU against ranked ACC opponents. But without spring practices, Doepking said, the Orange have an uphill climb to complete the season.

“The developmental stage of what we were able to do this year, we just didn’t get,” Doepking said. “And when you take off as much time offensively as we were asked to take off, it’s very, very hard.”

Published on April 11, 2021 at 9:42 pm

Contact Anthony: [email protected] | @anthonyalandt