The Dusters (19-20, 6-10) led Odessa, 1-0, heading into the bottom of the seventh inning of the first game, when errors allowed Odessa to score three unearned runs and steal the win from pitcher Pat Gonzales.
“We’ve figured out how to get a lead, but we’re not closing it out,” head coach Rodney McNeill said. “Pat was excellent. Over her last four or five starts she’s been unhittable. We just haven’t played behind her, but to her credit, she hasn’t been discouraged. If anything, she’s gotten stronger.”
Odessa scored an unearned run in each of the first three innings of the nightcap off starter Amber House.
After falling behind 3-0, WTC got runners on second and third with one out in each of the next three innings, but was unable to score until pushing a run across with the bases loaded in the seventh.
McNeill said he noticed a lack of motivation from some of his starters, prompting him to make wholesale changes to his lineup during the game.
“We played bad,” he said. “I made some changes and put some freshmen in, and they looked hungry.”
He said he and assistant coach Rome McNary would spend the next few days trying to fix what ails the Dusters, who have lost six straight after winning six in a row.
With 24 games remaining on the schedule, McNeill said that while Midland looks to be running away with the conference, the Dusters are in good shape to get back in the hunt for a postseason berth, with their next 12 games at home against El Paso Community College, Odessa and Howard Junior College.
“Us, Howard and El Paso are all within a game of each other, and there is plenty of time to get one of the three playoff spots,” he said. “We have to get consistency. We very well could be a solid third place or even second, we’ve just got to win games. It’s not panic time -- it’s in our hands.”
The Dusters open four-game weekend series with Odessa at 2 p.m. Saturday.