Sacramento State softball will not travel to North Dakota for its three-game series this weekend because last week’s snow storm left conditions on the field.

Although there are three more conference series’ left in the season, Sac State will not be as affected by this weekend’s series as much as its opponent. 

Even if North Dakota finishes the season eligible to make the tournament, it will not be able to attend because of the number of games they have cancelled. The Big Sky Conference instituted a rule that if a team misses 65 percent of conference games they may not advance to the post season. 

Softball head coach Kathy Strahan said nothing has changed going forward into the remaining games in conference and her team will have to win as much as they can in order for a high seeding in the Big Sky Tournament.

Strahan is also relieved of the financial burden this weekend would have brought upon the team’s budget. 

“There is a relief of not having to travel to North Dakota and using the $20,000 budget that was set aside for this series,” Strahan said. “We didn’t want to spend all that money and get there to find out we couldn’t play a game.”

The Big Sky Conference brought the two teams to discuss different possibilities of playing these three games. Although Strahan offered to play the games at Sac State, the North Dakota declined because of the late notice. 

Now that Sac State has the week off it can heal up some of the players that are coming off injuries. 

“The benefit of not playing this weekend is to rest up our players this week in preparing for the upcoming games against Portland State,” Strahan said.

Blair would have liked to play this weekend but she understands that at this part of the season it is better to rest.

“At this point of this season, we know how we play,” Blair said. “I like that we have the two hardest teams to play in the next two weeks because we tend to play up to our competition.” 

Sac State with the week off will travel to Portland State next Friday and Saturday for a three-game series. 

 

Clifton can be reached on Twitter at @jonesSHsports