Following their first ACC win against UNC on March 14, Cal softball is now heading out of state to face its toughest opponent thus far.<\/p>\n
The Bears are traveling to Tallahassee on March 20 for their first road trip outside of California to face No. 10 Florida State, a team that is riding a 14-game win streak and holds a 25-4 overall record.<\/p>\n
This season, FSU has been dominating the stat sheet, both offensively and defensively. It\u2019s hard to find a hole in its team composition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a complete team,\u201d said Cal head coach Steve Singleton. \u201cOffensively, they\u2019ve got a lot of firepower. In the circle, they\u2019ve got a few different looks from both sides, lefties, righties, up-spin, down-spin, changeup. They\u2019re loaded.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Seminoles bring a team composed of a talented freshman class and experienced veterans, including the nation\u2019s best statistical hitter \u2014 junior infielder Isa Torres with a BA of .648 \u2014 and a former national freshman of the year in junior infielder Jaysoni Beachum.<\/p>\n
But for the Bears, the trip represents more than just another conference series. It offers an opportunity for a young Cal team to grow within unfamiliar environments.<\/p>\n
Singleton emphasized how learning to compete within hostile environments is an important step for a program whose aim is long-term ACC success.<\/p>\n
The Bears will spend nearly 10 days on the road during spring break, traveling across several states while playing multiple opponents. The stretch includes stops at Tallahassee, Columbus and South Bend.<\/p>\n
Despite a string of losses against Duke and splitting the weekend with UNC, Cal has remained competitive in recent conference play. In the last two Duke games, the Bears were right in punching distance before a couple of poorly executed innings opened the floodgates.<\/p>\n
The same goes for the Tar Heels; in the first game of the series, Cal had a chance to walk off in extras but missed its opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the biggest word right now: compete,\u201d Singleton said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been highly competitive against two top-30 programs. We\u2019re getting ourselves into position to win games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Singleton emphasized that the next step for the Bears is learning how to convert those moments into victories. It\u2019s important to understand that this is going to be a process for Cal to learn; it\u2019s not going to magically wake up and know everything.<\/p>\n
One player that\u2019s leading the charge for the Bears in this process is junior infielder Gator Robinson, who delivered a dominant performance on March 15, despite the loss. After hitting three extra-base hits \u2014 one of those being a two-run home run \u2014 Robinson must continue the hot streak if Cal wants a fighting chance.<\/p>\n
Robinson is currently hitting a .347 average, along with five home runs and 17 runs batted in. This is a significant jump from what she was averaging last season at Boston College, and a sign of her growing role in the Bears\u2019 lineup.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s clearly on the right path,\u201d Singleton said.<\/p>\n
As Cal prepares to face one of the nation\u2019s strongest teams, the focus remains on continuing to compete at a high level and building toward consistent success in ACC play. The Bears and Seminoles will open play Friday 3 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following their first ACC win against UNC on March 14, Cal softball is now heading out of state…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[4028,9796,66128,4535,41299,21852,1320,3603,92925,92926,92756,6376,13086,45890,92924,232,234,233,52052,52832],"class_list":["post-201392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-acc","tag-bears","tag-cal","tag-california","tag-columbus","tag-duke","tag-florida-state","tag-fsu","tag-gator-robinson","tag-isa-torres","tag-jaysoni-beachum","tag-seminoles","tag-softball","tag-south-bend","tag-steve-singleton","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news","tag-tar-heels","tag-unc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}